Adds background in paragraphs 6, ISS recommendation in last paragraph

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Accenture ACN.N has scrapped its global diversity and inclusion goals after an evaluation of the changing U.S. political landscape, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Friday.

The company will start "sunsetting" the diversity goals it set in 2017, along with career development programs for "people of specific demographic groups", said the memo from CEO Julie Sweet.

Big tech companies Meta META.O, Alphabet GOOGL.O and Amazon AMZN.O are among a series of firms that had scrapped their diversity, equity, and inclusion $(DEI)$ goals leading up to and after Republican Donald Trump's return to the U.S. presidency.

Sweet said Accenture's policy change followed an "evaluation of our internal policies and practices and the evolving landscape in the United States, including recent executive orders with which we must comply".

Since taking office on January 20, Trump has issued a number of executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI programs across the federal government and the private sector.

Separately, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday in a note to staff said the Justice Department would "investigate, eliminate, and penalize" illegal diversity programs in the private sector.

Along with rolling back Accenture's DEI targets — which Sweet said would no longer be used to measure staff performance — the company will pause submitting data to external diversity benchmarking surveys, the memo said.

It would also evaluate external partnerships on the topic "as part of refreshing our talent strategy", Sweet said in the memo.

In line with goals set in 2017 and 2020, women currently make up 48% of Accenture's workforce and 30% of managing director roles, according to its latest annual report.

The company, which hires extensively from India, had also announced race and ethnicity goals for the U.S. and the UK in 2020.

Other media outlets were first to report the development.

Proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended on Friday that Apple AAPL.O investors vote against a proposal to consider eliminating the iPhone maker's DEI policies.

(Reporting by Rishi Kant and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Maju Samuel)

((Rishi.Kant@thomsonreuters.com;))