Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

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Mining companies and NGOs CAN speak the same language

Resource extraction projects provide unprecedented opportunities for social and economic development in communities, but the reality is that often people most impacted don’t realise the benefits of these developments.

In a Master’s research project I undertook last year, I discovered how partnerships between NGOs and mining companies, two traditionally rather adversarial entities, can realise the collaborative advantage to be attained through multi-sector partnerships. Sharing resources and knowledge between NGOs and mining companies can help develop innovative alternatives to address poverty, inequality and the impacts of mining.

As an Advisor in Community and External Affairs for a large multinational mining company, I have worked in a few different community contexts, and been exposed to some excellent examples of collaboration. I thought it valuable to formally ask the question and begin the dialogue on knowledge sharing and framework building.

I set out talking with professionals from both NGOs and mining companies who had been involved in community development partnerships in countries impacted by resource extraction, including Canada, Chile, South Africa, Papua New Guinea and several sites across Australia.

I developed a spectrum on which diverse partnerships range, see below.

From donor-recipient transactions to more transformational collaborations, I looked at what motivates parties to join forces, the kinds of social and environmental issues they aim to confront, and how they go about working together.

Results showed that there has been a trend towards enhanced collaboration and that organisations are becoming more open to working with each other in the community development space. Important driving factors included the inability for each sector to address development issues separately, and identification of common goals and opportunities for complementary asset exchange.

Whilst there was still an important role to play for advocacy and advisory NGOs, most relationships in the study fell into the “philanthropic partnership” interaction, and in some cases the partnership activities had been integrated into the core business of each of the partners. An example of this was a partnership that incorporated an Indigenous capacity building project into a company’s procurement and employment strategy. Here, the objectives were almost completely aligned, and the roles each party played were integral to the outcomes of the partnership.

Despite the impetus for collaboration, there are challenges. These include differences in values and perspective, power imbalances and sustainability.

Factors enabling success included effective planning, strong leadership support and community participation. Overall, the research calls for increased collaboration between partners to attain community development outcomes through leveraging shared resources, and for sharing this knowledge between the sectors.

To read more on the research you are welcome to download a copy from (link). This research was undertaken through the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining at the University of Queensland.

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Comments You, Simon Aumônier and 1 other like this 9 comments

Sarah Knoll Advisor Community and External Affairs at BHP Billiton Full thesis available at: https://www.csrm.uq.edu.au/publications/how-partnerships-between-non-government-organisations-ngos-and-mining-companies-contribute-to-community-development Like Reply privately Flag as inappropriate 3 days ago

Edmund. E Massawe Edmund. E Edmund. E Massawe Corporate Officer at Government of Tanzania theoretically speaking, yes they Can. Truly and practical speaking it depend on actual intension, willingness and commitment of the NGO to the intended goal. Any external influences to NGO in any way can have an impact to the operations of NGO in positive or negative way. But if the mining companies have a good and well established CSR program it can help. Now days, is not about mining companies or NGOs its about willingness and commitment from the people who are entitled to managing and supervising the operations. Like (1) Reply privately Flag as inappropriate 3 days ago Sarah K. likes this

JC Wandemberg Ph.D. JC JC Wandemberg Ph.D. CEO Sustainable Systems International (SSI). Transforming goal-oriented individuals into ideal-seeking visionaries! Top Contributor

Well done Sarah, you could benefit tremendously from the Search Conference and Participative Design Workshop in the work you do with miners and NGOs. Best regards, JC

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Sarah Knoll Advisor Community and External Affairs at BHP Billiton Top Contributor

Hi Edmund

Thanks for your post. Yes, I agree that it does depend on the motivation and commitment from both parties and having a shared goal for which to aspire.

Internal CSR program structures are also very important, and allow for dialogue and effective engagement to occur. So much does come down to the individual relationships between people who work together to develop and execute programs, and sometimes you can't measure that resource. It takes time to develop this capacity, and again a willingness to think innovatively and creatively.

Do you have any good examples of partnerships in Tanzania between NGOs and miners?

JC, thank you for the comment. I will look into it.

Regards Sarah

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Louise Mailloux GGI Partner

Very interesting and timely Sarah. I downloaded your thesis. In Canada there is an initiative between mining companies and NGOs called the Devonshire Initiative to examine how they can work better together. One of their projects is to develop a framework to measure the ``sustainable outcomes` of mining companies in the communities in which they operate. Like Reply privately Flag as inappropriate 1 day ago

Sarah Knoll Advisor Community and External Affairs at BHP Billiton Top Contributor

Hi Louise

Yes, I have heard of the Devonshire Initiative. Indeed I caught up with Ted Thomas when he was in Sydney for a conference last year, and he gave some great insights into my research topic.

Academia is really are making headway in terms of developing frameworks and instruments to measure outcomes of sustainable development. Also, the definition 'sustainable' is also difficult to conceptualise, depending on your context and who is involved.

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Kishore Kavadia advisor at Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd.

Sarah.Good insights into issues faced by local community (due to mining operations) and related social license and Stage wise approach. I am sure with able support from Corporate (and even in absence of clear support from local Govt.) NGOs can play a significant role in social development of adjoining community. There are a number of such problems and opportunities in Indian Mining Sector and am sure local NGOs will be happy to interact with you for collaboration. Regards Kishore Kavadia Mumbai, India

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Doris Mwanza CEO at Stallion Security Solutions Limited

Sarah, I appreciate the work you and others are doing towards engaging Mining companies and NGO's.

Actually, Mining Companies and NGO's (NPO's) SHOULD speak the same language, rather than CAN. It is becoming more and more apparent that the two sides should leave behind the tense relationships of the past and deal with the realities facing us today. We should rather study the failures made by the companies in the past, and moot corrective and conducive actions for the good of the communities in which the mining companies operate.

In order to do this, both sides have got to talk, and exchange their views across the table, clearly and objectively, outlining realistic expectations. However, the onus falls on the Mining companies to reach out to the communities in which they operate in order to dialogue; as well as be receptive to NGO's and NPO's who have a proven record in working to help the local communities.

Once all issues such as mine safety, clean water and good sanitation, health matters, education, sports,decent housing, decent working hours and conditions, rules against child and modern slavery, etc, are laid out on the table and discussed seriously, with a commitment to implementation and execution of community projects, we shall see a reduction and eventual end to unnecessary and avoidable calamities, such as has just occurred in Turkey.

It is tragic events such as this that crush relationships between Mining Companies and local communities. That is why reputable NGO's and NPO'S play an important intermediary part. Finally, let us not forget another important player in this equation - Government.

Governments must set very high standards and strict enforceable Legislature and monitoring capabilities for all local and foreign Mining companies operating in their countries. Mining Licenses should not be availed readily, unless all safety and other CSR issues are convincingly addressed. Governments must also interact in the dialogue processes between Mining Companies and NGO's. Like Reply privately Flag as inappropriate 7 minutes ago

Peter Burgess Peter Burgess Founder/CEO at TrueValueMetrics developing Multi Dimension Impact Accounting

Sarah ... I wish you well with your career, but please don't sell your soul in the process. The modern human built economy is very complex, as is nature and as is human society. It is not easy to optimize for best performance in a complex system, and, in my view, for the last 50 years or so, most of those with decision making power have not even tried.

The name brand business schools have taught many generations of students how to optimize the profit performance of corporations, but there has been nothing of equivalent intellectual power that has balanced this so that society could be optimized and stress on the environment optimized.

The good news is that there is now a growing community of people that do care about society and the environment, and there are an increasing number of leaders in the corporate space that are taking note. Better still there are CEOs who are talking about impact on society and the environment, and making the case that a company will only be successful in the long run if these matters are taken into consideration.

The bad news is that getting this message spread throughout the company is constrained by the core metrics of corporate performance, and the huge influence of capital markets. Conventional financial accounting only measures profit performance. GDP growth only measures money based economic activity. leaving out all sorts of things that are important by not reflected in money transactions.

More bad news ... big companies have a track record of behaving in an abysmal manner when what they are doing is 'out of sight'. What I have seen of the extractive industries in remote locations around the world over a period of several decades has been appalling ... and maybe it is better now than it has been in the past ... but I am not all that convinced. Money has amazing power to lubricate terrible behavior at the expense of local indigenous people and the environment.

In order to get change that we can believe in, there is a need for a better system of metrics and a level of transparency that is way better than what we have at the present time. This can happen ... this is happening ... but at a dreadfully slow pace

Peter Burgess - TrueValueMetrics Multi Dimension Impact Accounting Delete Edit Comment 14 minutes left to edit