This website provides practical knowledge and tools focusing on social, environmental and economic development issues for companies, civil society, local and regional governments.
Tools
Tools are a selective action/learning oriented subset of the topics covered in this website that answer the question - "how to" implement community development strategies. The tools offer specific manuals and guidelines for companies, communities, civil society, government officials and community development practitioners to ensure that projects are developed in the best way possible from the outset, yielding clear and sustainable benefits for local communities.
The challenge facing large-scale mining companies, governments and civil society is to harness ASM as an activity that can contribute responsibly towards the achievement of local development objectives. Issues of governance, social and environmental management, conflict, safety, protection of communities’ and miners’ rights, and alternative livelihoods remain urgent.
Project-induced in-migration (or influx) involves the movement of people into an area in anticipation of, or in response to, economic opportunities associated with the development and/or operation of a new project. Although a company cannot be held wholly responsible for in-migration associated with the broader economic development of the region, the company should assume primary responsibility for project-induced in-migration within the project area of influence.
Management and preservation of natural environments, ecological systems, and biodiversity are essential for sustainable economic, social, cultural and business development. Environmental concerns linked to extractive industry include water quality, use of mercury, waste disposal, land grading, deforestation, gas flaring, oil spills, disruption to ecosystems, and climate change. A key to successfully coordinating efforts and reducing environmental threats is to incorporate multiple stakeholders into the project design, implementation and monitoring.
There is a growing expectation globally that large scale investments by oil, gas and mining industries will bring broad-based benefits to local communities. In order to be a good neighbor, manage high expectations of governments and host communities, access land and manage risks, many extractive industry companies invest millions of dollars in diverse local sustainability programs such as infrastructure development, vocational training, skills development and support to a variety of local institutions and stakeholder groups. These sustainability investments create both benefits to the local communities as well as significant business value to companies.
This model calculates a probable range for the NPV of a portfolio of sustainability investments, including both the direct value creation and the indirect value protection of these investments. By highlighting the relative value of specific investments, the Tool will help to align the company’s core business objectives with the sustainability investments it makes.
The development effectiveness and sustainability of community development investments could increase significantly by taking into account how large footprint project-related activities can benefit men and women more equally. Through engagement with female stakeholders, actions to address gender bias issues in the sector have been identified.
Human rights refer to the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled often including: security, liberty, equality, political expression, welfare, and due process. Many companies recognize that respect for human rights is a fundamental part of being a responsible business and many have begun to integrate human rights considerations into their mainstream decision-making. As a result there is a growing aspiration to understand more clearly where human rights challenges may lie in existing and future business operations, rather than simply reacting to individual challenges as they arise.
Large-scale land aquisitions have become a major topic of policy discussion in recent years. Although definitions vary, by large-scale we mean 1000 hectares or mroe. By acqusition we mean the right to use land for a unified business undertaking (privately motivated, even if jointly implemented by business and government), and by land we mean surface rights. Since 2000, large scale land acquisitions have resulted in the purchase of an estimated 200 million hectares of land.
There are sigificant risks associated with acqusition of land for large scale projects and could result in major conflicts with local stakholders in not managed well. Projects requiring land acquisition and ressettlement of communities to allow for project development typically develop a Resettlement Action Plan, which outlines plans for the replacement of housing, infrastructure, services, and utilities and the restoration of displaced households' livelihoods.
The design and implementation of sustainable community investment and related programs in the context of large scale projects requires careful analysis and implementation to optimize positive benefits and avoid generation of additional strife and conflict. The right decisions and actions on community relations, social investment, local hiring, environmental protection, and security arrangements can contribute to economic growth and prosperity in affected communities. While some tensions and conflicts are unpredictable, many can be anticipated through adequate contextual and social analysis of the different stakeholders. Three conflict management strategies are conflict identification, conflict mapping and conflict resolution. These stages are useful throughout the operational life-cycle of the project. Companies can adopt a range of strategies for managing conflict impacts.
Local procurement refers to the purchase of goods and services from local businesses. Typically, this occurs in emerging markets and in developed markets where local communities have expectations about participating in new opportunities. Also known as business linkages, local supplier development, local content or local sourcing, local procurement is increasingly favored as a strategic business tool by international companies
Effective Monitoring & Evaluation of community development programs can improve management, accountability, participation, trust, learning, efficiency and development impacts. Monitoring is as much about building relationships, trust and mutual learning as it is about collecting and reporting data. Wide participation in monitoring is critical because diverse stakeholder groups are working towards overlapping but not precisely the same goals.