Reflections

A few years ago I reviewed a community-company grievance mechanism. The client didn’t have the best of reputations and I had some seriously negative preconceptions when I agreed to take on the work. I have to say, I was wrong.  I found the teams on site were doing a much better job than I expected with a significant and multifaceted effort being put into grievance prevention…

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Not so long ago I had the opportunity to try and answer this question:

Outline in 1000 words or less what would you like to see change for ESG to be valued more highly in the extractives sector?

This is what I had to say...

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Reporting up to management, back to the team or out to regulators and community stakeholders is often seen as a nuisance whereas taking a systematic approach and clearly identifying what information needs to be shared and for what reason makes reporting a useful tool to keep everyone informed. The aim needs to be making reporting as efficient and effective as possible.

Smart Reporting reuses the same information as much as possible. The number of local jobs and contracts, dollars spent, community concerns raised and addressed, quantity and quality of engagement is what most people are interested in seeing. Smart Reporting is often simply a case of presenting differently for each audience.

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Reporting up to management, back to the team or out to regulators and community stakeholders is often seen as a nuisance whereas taking a systematic approach and clearly identifying what information needs to be shared and for what reason makes reporting a useful tool to keep everyone informed. The aim needs to be making reporting as efficient and effective as possible.

Smart Reporting reuses the same information as much as possible. The number of local jobs and contracts, dollars spent, community concerns raised and addressed, quantity and quality of engagement is what most people are interested in seeing. Smart Reporting is often simply a case of presenting differently for each audience.

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Why Building Strong Relationships Matters.

Going into a new area to explore and ultimately build and operate a mine you start with high and positive expectations that you can work constructively with the local communities. Then it goes off the rails. Most often, with good intentions and a focus on an immediate issue, individuals in the company or in the community will take actions or make decisions (or fail to take actions or make decisions) that over time, cumulatively and progressively add up to major problems and consequences that are for the most part predictable – difficulties, costly delays and if it really goes badly, loss of the project. The good news is that taking some simple actions will give you far more control than you might think...

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We know that the level of social risk associated with a project is linked to the quality of relationships with local people but how can you know where you stand? There are two simple ways to do this. The first is to pay attention for changes in the tone of meetings with government agencies, partners and community members. The second is to note changes in behaviour and attitude you see happening in the community...

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