All 51 Adherents committed to setting up National Contact Points which are tasked to promote the effective implementation of the OECD Guidelines. Their mandate includes:

In addition, National Contact Points can, together with relevant actors, seek to promote policy coherence in the area of responsible business conduct, by promoting principles in the Guidelines in policy-making and across government departments. NCPs also work with other NCPs and the OECD in further developing the Guidelines, and, if necessary, act in supporting roles in complaint processes which fall within the responsibility of other NCPs;

The National Contact Points regularly exchange with other NCPs as part of the Network of National Contact Points. In addition, the OECD has established a working group on responsible business conduct, in which the German NCP participates on behalf of Germany.

The German National Contact Point (NCP)

The National Contact Point (NCP) is located in unit VC6-NKS at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in the Directorate-General for External Economic Policy.

It is supported by a Interministerial Committee on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (Rules of Procedure (PDF, 76 KB)). The Committee works on issues linked to the application of the OECD Guidelines and decides by consensus, with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action as the lead ministry making a proposal. The members of the Committee include – apart from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action – the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport.

In addition, the NCP receives advice and support from the Working Group on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (Rules of Procedure (PDF, 93 KB)) . The Working Group provides a platform for discussing all issues linked to the implementation of the OECD Guidelines. The Working Group includes not members from the Ministries represented in the Interministerial Committee, as well as representatives of the OECD stakeholder groups (employers, employees and civil society) and also other experts on responsible business conduct.

In 2017, the German NCP was reviewed by its peers in the context of a peer review. The report, which includes recommendations, is available here (German National Contact Point Peer Review Report (PDF, 314 KB)) In March 2019 the NCP reported on the implementation of these recommendations to the OECD Working Group on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (Peer Review of the German NCP (PDF, 195 KB)).