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A Strategic Approach to Community Relations and Sustainable Development
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Wayne Dunn & Associates Ltd. developed the Interaction Continuum© framework to assist governments, industry, civil society/local communities and development interests to better understand how business activities can be placed within an overall regional development strategy and how they can systematically facilitate increased collaboration between industry, governments, civil society/local communities and other development interests. The continuum also assists all stakeholders to better understand the current status of community and social relations programs, and how these can be further developed into sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships.
Typically there are a range of potential programs and activities that extend from grants and donations through to full partnering. The intent isn't to imply that the further one goes up the Interaction Continuum, the 'better' the program is. Experience shows that community relations programs that are successful and sustainable over the longer term, work towards developing activities along the full range of the continuum.
(Use the mouse on the diagram for more information.)
Companies wishing to develop mutually beneficial relationships with local communities must have the ability to communicate effectively with local people and communities. This requires not only local language skills, but expertise in cross cultural communications and conflict management. Communication and consultation is a mission-critical component of a successful community relations/sustainable development strategy.
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There are often huge capacity gaps that must be overcome to maximize productive local involvement. Local people and businesses frequently do not have the capacity to take advantage of employment opportunities or opportunities to supply goods and services. Strategic initiatives to bridge local capacity gaps can significantly increase local involvement and the benefits accruing to local communities. Increasing local business and economic capacity can also assist in diversifying the local economy and lessening dependence on a particular project like mining or oil and gas development. Back
The focus of this component is to encourage and facilitate collaborative partnerships between industry, civil society and governments. Corporations can often use their influence and resources to encourage national governments, civil society, donor agencies (i.e. United Nations, Aid organizations, etc.) and other development interests to collaborate in meeting local health, education and development needs. This strategy not only leverages corporate investment and reduces contingent liabilities; it is also more sustainable and creates much less long-term dependency on the company. This same strategy can be applied in other areas such as developing local infrastructure, and in programs aimed at increasing local capacity and skills, and in developing local businesses' capacity. An additional benefit of leveraging relationships is that companies will develop trust and working relationships with other international development interests that could be very useful if the project ever encounters major environmental or social problems. Back
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Our work has identified six basic areas of relationship building opportunities, where companies and communities. Applying the above principles and systematically implementing relationship building activities along this framework will create mutually beneficial long-term relationships with local people and communities.
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Without a systematic framework and consistent approach, many community relations and sustainability initiatives can end up simply throwing money and resources at solving social problems, rather than focusing on the development of long term, sustainable and mutually beneficial relationships. Back
Training and education initiatives can assist in developing the skills and abilities that will enable local people to become more productively involved in mining and exploration projects. As well, it will enable more involvement in other activities and stimulate a less dependent and more sustainable form of local development. As noted previously, it is generally advantageous for industry to collaborate with other interests to develop and implement programs and activities in this area. Back
This can include support for health care, education, infrastructure and helping to meet other worthwhile local priorities needs. While these are definitely important needs and companies should be involved in helping to meet them, it is often a costly mistake to become too focused on trying to single-handedly make wholesale changes to local education and health systems. Back
Local procurement of goods and services can substantially increase community benefits. The amount of local benefits that accrue from resource development projects. As with employment, there are frequently capacity and structural barriers that must be overcome to maximize local procurement. Programs at other points on the Interaction Continuum can assist in overcoming some barriers. Others can be overcome by facilitating joint ventures and other forms of collaboration between existing suppliers and contractors and local businesses. Back
Increasing local employment, both directly and with suppliers and contractors, offers an efficient and cost-effective method of increasing local benefits. However there are frequently barriers that must be overcome before this can occur. Some of these can be overcome through training, education and capacity development. Others, such as union agreements, physical requirements, work schedules, etc. must be addressed in other ways. Sometimes the failure of previous employment programs can make it difficult to develop internal support for another try. Back
At the community level there is a growing interest in securing equity participation in local resource development projects. While this may not be the case with the current project, we expect that this will become more previewing and that companies will need to consider how to best address it. It may offer opportunities for aligning corporate and community interests and, may even provide companies with advantages in acquiring new opportunities. Back
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Overall, the Interaction Continuum and Strategic Implementation Framework presents a practical, workable approach to understanding and managing the interface between extractive projects and local communities. It has been used successfully in mining, oil and gas, forestry and pipeline applications in a number of countries. A detailed discussion on applying this practice in the mining industry, Beyond "Beads 'n Trinkets": A Systematic Approach to Community Relations for the Next Millennium was recently published by the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.
To discuss how it may be of assistance, contact Wayne Dunn directly at info@waynedunn.com
, or telephone +1-250-743-7619 (Canadian office - Pacific Time Zone).
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