Effective grievance mechanisms are an essential component of environmental and social risk management, helping projects identify concerns early, strengthen stakeholder trust, prevent escalation, and support better development outcomes. Grievance mechanisms also provide an important source of information for adaptive management, helping practitioners identify emerging impacts, monitor mitigation effectiveness, and strengthen project performance over time. However, many grievance mechanisms struggle in practice due to weak design, limited accessibility, unclear procedures, or insufficient institutional capacity.

This practice-oriented course introduces participants to the key principles and practical tools required to design, establish, operate, and monitor effective grievance mechanisms in project settings. Drawing on the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB’s) Managing Grievances Good Practice Note and real project experience, the course combines targeted technical content with case studies, role plays, group exercises, and practical implementation tools.

Participants will work through the core stages of grievance management, including system design, complaint handling, communication, monitoring, and adaptive learning. The course also explores practical considerations for working with existing institutional, government, and community-level grievance systems, and how project-level mechanisms can build on or interface with these structures effectively. Common implementation challenges, including accessibility, confidentiality, retaliation risk, and stakeholder trust will be explored throughout. Designed for impact assessment practitioners, consultants, government counterparts, MDB staff, project implementers, and early-career professionals, the course focuses on practical, transferable approaches applicable across sectors and project types.

Level: Beginner/Intermediate

Prerequisites: None

Language: English

Duration: 1 day (18 April)

Min/Max: 15-30

Price: $330

Instructors: Reisha Hartley Jones, Social Safeguards Specialist and Training Consultant (Singapore) and Zaruhi Hayrapetyan, Principal Safeguards Specialist, ADB (Philippines)

Reisha Hartley Jones is an Australian social safeguards specialist, trainer, and facilitator with over 20 years of experience in impact assessment, stakeholder engagement, grievance management, and environmental and social (E&S) risk management across Asia-Pacific and North America.

Since 2015, Reisha has worked with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), supporting safeguards policy implementation and capacity building for staff and borrowers. She co-authored ADB’s Managing Grievances Good Practice Note and developed the accompanying grievance management training program on which this course is based.

As an independent consultant, Reisha focuses on practical grievance management, including grievance intake and triage, sensitive grievances, retaliation risk, stakeholder engagement, and using grievance data to improve projects. She has delivered safeguards and grievance management training across the Asia-Pacific region and advised MDBs, governments, and private sector clients on major infrastructure, energy, mining, and development projects.

Zaruhi Hayrapetyan is a Principal Safeguards Specialist (Social) with the Office of Safeguards at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), where she leads the social safeguards team for interregional private sector operations. She has nearly 20 years of experience in social impact assessment, stakeholder engagement, grievance management, and involuntary resettlement.

Previously, Zaruhi worked in ADB’s safeguards policy team, supporting policy implementation and compliance on high-risk projects. She led the development of Environmental and Social Standard 10 (ESS10) and related guidance on stakeholder engagement and information disclosure under ADB’s Environmental and Social Framework, and co-authored ADB’s Managing Grievances Good Practice Note.

Zaruhi has extensive experience working with governments, multilateral development banks, and project implementation agencies across Europe, Central Asia, and Asia, supporting the practical application of social safeguards in infrastructure and development projects. Her work has included grievance management, stakeholder engagement, social impact assessment, resettlement planning, valuation, and livelihood restoration. Prior to joining ADB, she worked as a consultant to organizations including the World Bank, ADB, and IFAD, supporting the review and resolution of project-related grievances.