Risk Management Policy

Risk is a natural product of uncertainty, which can bring both opportunities for positive outcomes and exposure to potential harmful outcomes. In addition to measuring the probability of risks or opportunities, it is important to consider their magnitude in order to enable strategic decision-making using a common metric. This Policy refers to uncertain negative outcomes as “risks” and uncertain positive outcomes as “opportunities.” A high risk or significant opportunity, therefore, can refer to an outcome with a small chance of occurring but a large magnitude or an outcome with a large chance of occurring but a small magnitude.

Failing to seize a large opportunity can be just as detrimental to ClientEarth’s mission as failing to mitigate a material risk. ClientEarth must purposefully take calculated risks and leverage opportunities to deliver its mission by balancing mission-furthering opportunities against mission-compromising risks within its programmatic work. At the same time, it must manage organisational compliance risks and opportunities to create an overall acceptable risk/opportunity profile. This Policy sets out the framework and process to guide ClientEarth’s decision-making on risk and opportunity management. It sets out how ClientEarth identifies, assesses, and monitors risk, develops and implements risk mitigation actions, and reports on these risks and mitigations, in a way that acknowledges and reflects the opportunities on the other side of those risks. This Policy looks to ensure that risks and opportunities are identified, assessed, and monitored, enabling the Executive Team to make informed decisions and take timely action to mitigate risk; opportunities are maximised with confidence that risks will be managed; ClientEarth’s beneficiaries, Staff, and organisational operations and assets are protected; and ClientEarth’s charitable objectives are achieved.

This Policy has been approved by ClientEarth’s Executive Team, and reflects our values.