TISFD publishes beta version of disclosure recommendations Framework for consultation

What you need to know

• The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) published a beta version of its Framework for public feedback. The Framework is intended to support businesses to identify and report inequality and people-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities. The TISFD is a voluntary, UN-backed taskforce supported by organisations from across business, finance, labour, civil society and international organisations.
• The beta version of the Framework includes draft disclosure recommendations as well as areas for future development.
• The Framework adopts the structure of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)'s four pillars, and its 12 recommendations largely mirror those of the TCFD.
• The Framework aims to reduce duplication in reporting by building on and complementing existing disclosure standards including the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
• It also aims to support integrated reporting as regards climate, nature and people-related risks, all of which it recognises as heavily interdependent. The Framework enables people-related issues (including inequality, human and labour rights and wellbeing) to be considered alongside climate and nature issues as relevant to financial disclosures.
• Feedback on the beta version of the Framework should be submitted before 31 July 2026. The TISFD intends to publish the final Framework by the end of 2027. Businesses are encouraged to take part in piloting the Framework. Further information on this will be available later in 2026.

Background on TISFD

The TISFD was established in September 2024 by a collaboration of organisations including the UN Development Programme, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), investors and civil society organisations. Its aim is to build on and bring together existing frameworks into a single disclosure framework to help businesses, investors, policy-makers and civil society use the same language when discussing people-related issues such as inequality, human and labour rights and wellbeing¹.

Overview of TISFD Framework beta version

On 26 May 2026, the TISFD published a beta version 0.1 of its Framework for public feedback.

The beta version of the Framework, which follows a Conceptual Foundations paper that was published in October 2025, is intended to support businesses to identify and report inequality and people-related impacts, dependencies, risks and opportunities (IDROs). It enables people-related issues to be considered with climate and nature issues as relevant to financial disclosures.

The beta version includes:

• Conceptual foundations such as definitions and concepts to understand relationships between business, finance, people and inequality.
• Proposed general requirements that are core expectations underpinning all the recommended disclosures.
• Draft disclosure recommendations.
• Areas for future development.

The TISFD Framework will be familiar to those used to Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) reporting. As the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) does, the TISFD Framework adopts the four pillars of the TCFD recommendations (governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics & targets). Using a 'building blocks approach', it aims to reduce duplication in reporting by drawing from and complementing existing disclosure standards including the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)'s S1 and S2 sustainability standards, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).

The TISFD has taken a system-level risk approach to inequality as it recognises that inequality and other people-related issues are shaping business performance, investment outcomes and the stability of economies and markets where they accumulate across sectors and markets. Having information on people-related IDROs is key for investors as these issues can affect long-term portfolio performance and because they can be systemic issues, diversification may not be possible.

The Framework is also designed to support integrated reporting as regards climate, nature and people-related risks, all of which are heavily interdependent.

The disclosure recommendations and general requirements

The Framework includes twelve recommendations grouped under the same four pillars as the TCFD (see Diagram below). Eleven of these recommendations are very similar to those of the TCFD with key differences being the recommendation to disclose people-related impacts and dependencies as well as risks and opportunities and the specification that disclosure of processes to identify, assess and prioritise people-related IDROs should relate to own operations as well as upstream and downstream value chains. There is also an additional disclosure relating to stakeholder engagement under the governance pillar.

The recommendations are underpinned by five general requirements:

• Materiality: Only material information about people-related IDROs should be disclosed. The recommendations have been designed to accommodate different definitions of materiality under the ISSB, the ESRS or other reporting standards.
• System-relevant information: The accumulation of people-related impacts across the economy can give rise to system-level risks or may help to realise system-level opportunities. The Framework notes that information about an entity’s impacts relevant to system-level risks is often not disclosed under current materiality approaches. This is because some impacts may not constitute the most significant impacts for a reporting entity (under an impact materiality approach) or affect its prospects (under a financial materiality approach). The TISFD is conducting research to identify key drivers of impacts that may be relevant to a large range of investors and that could therefore warrant disclosure. It anticipates including these drivers together with relevant metrics in the next iteration of the Framework.
• Stakeholder engagement: Reporting entities should describe how they have engaged with affected stakeholders, including through due diligence. The Framework identifies several categories of affected people including workers, communities, consumers and economic stakeholders and describes how businesses and financial institutions interact with and depend upon each of these groups.
• Scope: Entities should explain the scope of their assessment and disclosures and how that scope was determined as well as plans for expansion.
• Time horizons: Entities should explain the short-, medium-, and long-term time horizons over which people-related IDROs are assessed.

Diagram: TISFD disclosure recommendations

 
<sup>*Disclosure recommendations on metrics and targets will form part of TISFD's future work and will be included in next iterations of the Framework.

 Source: TISFD Disclosure Framework – Beta Version 0.1</sup> 

Timeline and next steps

The TISFD is seeking feedback on the beta version of the Framework by 31 July 2026.

The next version of the Framework will be published at the end of 2026 and the TISFD intends to publish a further draft in mid-2027 with the final Framework being released by the end of 2027.

The Framework identifies several priority areas for further development and states that the TISFD will work with partners to further develop the approach to materiality and the interconnectedness of people, nature and climate.

The TISFD intends to include recommended metrics and implementation guidance in future versions of the Framework following appropriate consultation and testing.

Practical implications and recommended actions

Once finalised, the TISFD's recommendations could ultimately become the foundation of mandatory jurisdictional reporting requirements in the same way as jurisdictions adopted the TCFD's recommendations.

Businesses that are preparing to report under this Framework will be able to assess how people-related IDROs impact their operations and value chains, and consider benchmarking their current people-related disclosures against the TISFD Framework to understand how their reporting practices may need to develop in respect of social issues.

The TISFD is encouraging businesses and financial institutions to test the Framework. Further information on pilot testing will be available later in 2026.

Comment

“Investors increasingly recognise that inequality and wider people-related issues no doubt influence economic stability and long-term returns. TISFD’s framework helps provide the structure and information needed to better understand these relationships and integrate them into investment decision-making.”

Arunma Oteh, Co-Chair of TISFD and former Treasurer of the World Bank

The TISFD's Framework is intended to help organisations assess and articulate people-related challenges including those resulting from the impact of the climate transition and nature crisis on industries and sectors, AI-driven workforce transformation, increasingly uneven economic growth and geopolitical tensions affecting supply chains. These changes create risks as well as opportunities for businesses. This in turn creates a need for decision-useful information for investors and other stakeholders. This need is particularly acute given the systemic implications where these issues accumulate across sectors and markets.

Although designed to be interoperable with the ISSB and other sustainability reporting frameworks, businesses may be concerned that the TISFD's Framework represents yet another set of disclosures to incorporate into annual reports at a time when the EU and the UK are focused on streamlining corporate reporting. However, businesses that adopt the Framework may benefit from applying a more consistent approach to people-related disclosures, similar to the approach being taken in respect of climate and nature IDROs.

If you would like to know how we can support sustainability reporting obligations including on people-related issues, please get in touch with any of the contacts below.

Author: Becky Clissmann, Sustainability Counsel

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