ICGN Global Governance Principles Stewardship Training Course

Course overview

Boards and investors face sharper scrutiny over how companies create sustainable value, oversee risk, engage shareholders, and account for environmental and social impacts. Governance professionals need more than familiarity with board structures or regulatory codes: they must be able to use the ICGN Global Governance Principles as a practical benchmark for evaluating governance arrangements, challenging weak practices, and framing credible improvement recommendations. This course addresses the gap between reading the Principles and applying them to live board, stewardship, disclosure, and investor-engagement decisions.

Participants work through the ICGN Global Governance Principles in five connected areas: board leadership and effectiveness, shareholder rights, corporate culture and purpose, risk oversight, and sustainability reporting. They learn to conduct a principles-based governance review, map material governance gaps, assess board committee mandates, evaluate executive remuneration alignment, and test investor stewardship practices. The course also examines how the ICGN approach relates to the OECD G20 Principles of Corporate Governance, IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, and common institutional-investor expectations.

Teaching combines instructor-led interpretation of the Principles with governance case analysis, board-paper review, peer challenge sessions, and structured workshops. Participants use an ICGN-aligned diagnostic template to assess a listed-company scenario and develop evidence-based recommendations for the board, company secretary, investor stewardship team, or governance committee. They leave with a completed governance gap assessment, a prioritised action plan, and a practical stakeholder-engagement narrative that can be adapted for their own organisation.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with boards, governance frameworks, investor relations, stewardship, ESG oversight, or corporate reporting and now need a recognised international frame for improving governance practice and advising senior decision-makers.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the ICGN Global Governance Principles to assess a company’s governance architecture and board practices
• Conduct an ICGN-aligned governance gap assessment using a structured evidence and rating template
• Evaluate board composition, independence, succession, and committee mandates against stewardship expectations
• Assess shareholder rights, voting processes, and engagement arrangements for equitable investor treatment
• Test executive remuneration policies for long-term value alignment, accountability, and disclosure quality
• Analyse risk, internal control, culture, and sustainability oversight through a board-accountability lens
• Draft prioritised governance recommendations with owners, milestones, evidence sources, and escalation routes
• Prepare a board or investor briefing that explains material governance findings and proposed actions

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Corporate Governance Managers — who translate governance principles into board policies, disclosures, and assurance activity
• Company Secretaries — who advise boards on composition, committee effectiveness, shareholder rights, and governance reporting
• Institutional Investor Stewardship Professionals — who assess investee-company governance and lead voting or engagement decisions
• Board Advisors and Non-Executive Directors — who need an international benchmark for challenging governance practice
• Investor Relations Directors — who explain governance arrangements and shareholder concerns to institutional investors
• ESG and Sustainability Governance Leads — who connect sustainability oversight, reporting, and board accountability

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with corporate governance concepts such as board and committee roles, fiduciary duties, shareholder meetings, annual reports, risk oversight, and executive remuneration. Experience reviewing governance disclosures, supporting a board or committee, conducting investor engagement, or working with an internal governance policy is strongly recommended. Participants should be comfortable reading annual-report extracts and discussing governance scenarios in groups. No legal qualification, prior ICGN membership, specialist ESG certification, or advanced financial modelling capability is required. The course does not assume that participants have previously used the ICGN Global Governance Principles.

Training methodology

The programme uses short faculty-led briefings to interpret each ICGN principle, followed by applied analysis of annual-report extracts, committee terms of reference, voting records, remuneration reports, and investor-engagement scenarios. Teams complete an ICGN-aligned diagnostic for a listed-company case, compare evidence ratings, and defend recommendations in simulated board and stewardship discussions. Individual reflection sessions connect the case to participants’ own governance context. On day five, each participant converts findings into a practical 90-day governance improvement plan and stakeholder briefing.

Course outline

Day 1: Using the ICGN Principles as a governance benchmark

• Purpose, structure, and intended use of the ICGN Global Governance Principles
• Principles-based governance versus rules-based code compliance
• Corporate purpose, sustainable value creation, and accountability
• Governance ecosystem mapping: board, management, shareholders, and stakeholders
• Materiality and proportionality in governance assessments
• Crosswalk with the OECD G20 Principles of Corporate Governance
• Evidence sources for an ICGN governance review

Workshop: Participants build an evidence map for a listed-company case and identify the documents required to test each ICGN principle.

Day 2: Board leadership, composition, and effectiveness

• Board responsibilities for strategy, oversight, and long-term value
• Chair leadership, CEO separation, and role clarity
• Director independence criteria and conflict-of-interest controls
• Skills matrices, diversity, renewal, and succession planning
• Board evaluation methods and externally facilitated reviews
• Audit, remuneration, nomination, and sustainability committee mandates
• Information quality, meeting design, and board decision records

Workshop: Participants assess a board composition and committee structure, then draft a prioritised board-effectiveness recommendation.

Day 3: Shareholder rights and investor stewardship

• Equitable treatment of shareholders and protection of minority interests
• Annual general meeting design, voting rights, and proxy access
• Capital issuance, takeover protections, and shareholder approval thresholds
• Institutional investor stewardship responsibilities under the ICGN approach
• Voting policy development and vote-escalation decisions
• Constructive engagement planning with investee companies
• Disclosure of engagement objectives, outcomes, and conflicts

Workshop: Teams prepare a stewardship engagement plan and voting rationale for a contested shareholder resolution.

Day 4: Risk, remuneration, culture, and sustainability oversight

• Board accountability for enterprise risk management and internal controls
• Risk appetite statements and escalation reporting to the board
• Corporate culture indicators, conduct risk, and whistleblowing arrangements
• Executive remuneration design and long-term performance alignment
• Malus, clawback, and discretion provisions in incentive plans
• Board oversight of sustainability-related risks and opportunities
• IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 governance disclosure expectations

Workshop: Participants review a remuneration report and sustainability-governance disclosure, producing an ICGN-aligned issues log.

Day 5: From diagnostic findings to governance action

• Scoring and prioritising governance gaps by materiality and urgency
• Root-cause analysis for recurring board and stewardship weaknesses
• Writing evidence-based recommendations for directors and executives
• Governance action plans with owners, milestones, and success measures
• Board-paper structure for governance improvement decisions
• Investor and stakeholder communication of remediation progress
• Ninety-day implementation planning and assurance checkpoints

Workshop: Participants complete and present an ICGN-aligned governance gap assessment, board briefing, and 90-day action plan for their selected case.

Tools & standards covered

ICGN Global Governance Principles, OECD G20 Principles of Corporate Governance, IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information, IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions