The practice of international stakeholder participation has increased exponentially in the last decade. Following especially the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992, stakeholder participation has become praxis for UN conferences and decision-making, and become increasingly accepted for the formulation of EU policy as well as in the implementation of large-scale industrial developments. The integration of stakeholders in these processes is often undertaken short-term through invitation of stakeholders for conferences, and more long-term through inclusion of stakeholder groups in decision-making structures. However, given the relative recency and breadth of international stakeholder processes, and the diverse actors practicing it, there has been very little systematic study of the contribution and efficiency of international stakeholder participation. This paper attempts to outline the diverse types of participation in policy and business, describe the main ways in which it is practiced, and evaluate key examples of international stakeholder participation according to set criteria of efficiency. The examples evaluated include the UN Commission on Sustainable Development and UN Forum on Forests, the EU Water Initiative and EU Action on Climate Change, and Shell International?s outreach activities. The paper concludes that while the practices and processes in the examples differ largely, they display common biases towards the own field, level of activity and organisational style that may possibly limit the participatory outreach. At the same time, they provide some assessment of relevant and well-functioning practices for outreach and international participatory democracy. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]