Trubshaw Tribune: Recent Episodes

View Details

Relevant:

• [E-learning] Exploration Geologists: Skills in Social Licence & Emergency Prep

Explore essential social concepts critical for success in mining and exploration. This article breaks down four key areas and their interconnected roles:

1. Social Licence to Operate (SLO): See how SLO extends beyond compliance, impacting overall project viability through community trust and acceptance.
2. Social Performance (SP): Understand SP's role in community engagement and its direct link to sustaining SLO.
3. Stakeholder Engagement: Learn how engaging with a range of stakeholders influences both SLO and SP, shaping project outcomes.
4. Community Relations: Discover the vital role of community relations in reinforcing both SLO and SP, and their overall impact on project success.

This guide is tailored for professionals in the mining and exploration sector, offering insights into how these social concepts work together to drive successful, sustainable operations.

IntroductionIn the complex and evolving landscape of mineral exploration, success hinges on more than just geological discoveries. Equally important is the adept handling of non-technical challenges, such as environmental stewardship, community engagement, and regulatory compliance. These aspects, crucial yet sometimes overlooked, are pivotal in securing timely site access, sustaining community relations, and bolstering investor confidence.

This article delves into the critical roles and interdependencies of Social Licence to Operate (SLO), Social Performance (SP), Stakeholder Engagement, and Community Relations. It underscores their significance not just as theoretical concepts but as practical tools in the early and essential stages of mineral exploration. SLO has evolved from a supplementary aspect to a central component of project viability, reflecting the broader acceptance and trust a mining company garners. Similarly, SP transcends legal obligations, focusing on concrete actions that directly benefit community welfare and foster long-term, sustainable relationships.

In this dynamic context, effective Stakeholder Engagement and strategic Community Relations are imperative for navigating the multifaceted social landscape of exploration projects. This exploration into the mining sector aims to demonstrate how an integrated approach to both geological and non-technical challenges can forge a path to more effective business outcomes and set a new standard for sustainable success in the industry.

Social Licence to Operate (SLO) in the Mining IndustryThe Social Licence to Operate (SLO) has evolved into a pivotal component in the mining industry, transcending traditional regulatory approvals to embody broader acceptance from local communities and stakeholders. This concept, which emerged in the late 1990s alongside the rise of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development, signals a shift toward gaining and maintaining social approval and trust. It underscores the importance of community support in responsible mining and serves as a testament to the value of deep engagement and ongoing dialogue between mining companies and the communities they impact.

Social Licence to Operate in Mineral ExplorationIn the realm of mineral exploration, securing SLO is synonymous with achieving timely site access, a critical factor for activities like prospecting and drilling. This success hinges on continuous consultation and the integration of local communities' insights and values into operational plans. Such proactive engagement, mirroring the principles emphasized in the upcoming Stakeholder Engagement section, not only pre-empts potential conflicts but also facilitates smoother operations, highlighting the interconnected nature of these concepts.

Mitigating Delays through Effective Community EngagementFailure to effectively engage with communities can lead to significant operational setbacks. A lack of foundational trust can manifest as community protests, legal challenges, and access restrictions, potentially causing considerable delays or halting exploration altogether. Therefore, prioritizing community consultation is crucial for efficient exploration, forming an essential part of responsible mineral exploration practices.

Embracing Shared Value in Mining: Beyond Social Licence to OperateThe pursuit of SLO in mining is intrinsically linked with the concept of Shared Value. This approach extends beyond baseline community acceptance to align mining project objectives with the social and environmental needs of local communities. Shared Value initiatives, such as local job creation, infrastructure development, and environmental conservation, not only address immediate community needs but also foster long-term sustainable development. This holistic approach solidifies deeper community relationships, based on trust and mutual benefits, enhancing the overall success of mining operations.

In conclusion, SLO in mining is about more than legal compliance; it requires proactive community engagement and the adoption of Shared Value principles. It is essential for timely exploration access and sustainable operations, laying a foundation of trust and aligning project goals with community aspirations. As we will see in the subsequent sections on Social Performance and Stakeholder Engagement, these principles of SLO are deeply interconnected with and reinforced by the broader strategies and approaches in the mining industry.

Social Performance in MiningSocial Performance (SP) in the mining industry is a multifaceted system encompassing a company’s approach to managing its social responsibilities and impacts. This system extends beyond compliance, focusing on how a company positively influences the communities in which it operates and mitigates potential negative impacts. SP is crucial in shaping the company's societal relationships and is instrumental in achieving the desired outcome of Social Licence to Operate (SLO).

Social Performance in ExplorationIn the initial phase of mineral exploration, SP is key in forging strong connections with local communities and stakeholders. This phase entails not only assessing potential social and environmental impacts but also proactively engaging with local communities to understand their concerns and aspirations. Integral to this process is a focus on conflict prevention and resolution, ensuring any emerging issues are addressed promptly and effectively. This approach is adaptive, evolving with the exploration and continuously refining the company's strategies based on new insights and feedback. Such a dynamic method ensures that SP remains responsive and relevant, deepening the company's understanding of and relationship with the community.

Measuring and Enhancing Social Performance in ExplorationMeasuring Social Performance in exploration involves evaluating both the positive and negative impacts of a company's early operations on various stakeholders. Metrics may include the extent and effectiveness of community consultations, transparency about exploration plans, responsiveness to local concerns, and initial environmental assessments. Enhancing Social Performance at this stage is about proactive and conflict sensitive engagement with stakeholders, transparent communication, and establishing a company culture that is deeply rooted in ethical and equitable practices.

“The kernel to sustainable social performance starts with culture within your organisation. If you aren’t creating, maintaining and improving a culture that is delivering a safe, equitable, and healthy workplace for your workforce, then it’s impossible to step outside the gates and build successful relationships externally.”

— Tom Palmer, CEO, Newmont Role of Technology in Social Performance during ExplorationTechnology plays a critical role in managing and improving Social Performance in the exploration phase. Advanced tools aid in monitoring social impacts, facilitating stakeholder engagement, and ensuring transparent communication. Platforms like Team Sherpa can be instrumental in this process, providing a comprehensive view of the company’s social footprint and facilitating informed decision-making.

In conclusion, SP in mining is pivotal for building and maintaining robust societal relationships, integral to securing the SLO. The adaptive approach of SP during mineral exploration, focused on community engagement, conflict resolution, and responsive strategy evolution, sets the foundation for long-term success. Emphasizing ethical practices, transparent communication, and leveraging technology like Team Sherpa, SP in mining is not just about compliance but about creating a sustainable, positive impact on society. It's a strategic necessity, underscoring the industry's commitment to responsible and community-centric mining operations.

Stakeholder EngagementStakeholder engagement is not just a component, but the bedrock of Social Licence to Operate (SLO) and Social Performance in the mining industry. Stakeholders are anyone from individuals and households to organisations who might feel the impact of a mining project or who could shape its progress. This includes local residents, authorities, investors, environmental groups, and employees.

Proactive Engagement During ExplorationEngaging with a broad base of stakeholders from the very earliest exploration is essential. It lays the groundwork for obtaining SLO and shapes the trajectory of Social Performance. Conversations with local residents, indigenous groups, government officials, and environmental agencies are key. This process extends beyond simply relaying information; it's about truly listening and assimilating the local knowledge, environmental subtleties, community expectations, and cultural viewpoints. Through this two-way dialogue, companies can adjust their exploration plans to reduce negative impacts and bring early benefits to local areas. This creates a foundation for lasting relationships with fewer disruptions.

Key Activities in Stakeholder EngagementThe following are key stakeholder engagement activities during exploration:

1. Stakeholder Identification and Analysis: This involves pinpointing all potential stakeholders, understanding their interests, concerns, and the possible impact of the project on them.
2. Information Disclosure: It's crucial to share relevant, accessible information about exploration activities, potential impacts, and benefits, ensuring that this disclosure is culturally sensitive and easily understandable.
3. Consultation and Participation: Facilitating an open dialogue allows stakeholders to voice their perspectives and concerns about environmental and social issues, thus playing an active role in the exploration process.
4. Grievance Mechanisms: Establishing accessible channels through which stakeholders can express their concerns ensures that these grievances are addressed promptly and effectively.
5. Management and Follow-Up: This involves incorporating stakeholder feedback into exploration planning, assessing the effectiveness of engagement activities, and adjusting strategies as needed.
6. Building Trust and Social Capital: Consistent, respectful interactions with stakeholders are crucial for building trust and social capital, which are vital for the smooth progression of the project.

By effectively engaging stakeholders, exploration and project teams can enhance their SLO and Social Performance while aligning with global standards like the IFC’s Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability. This approach not only delivers high operational utility through a more informed, sustainable, and conflict-free exploration process, but also serves as a strong indicator of investor assurance, highlighting the strategic importance of stakeholder engagement in successful mining operations.

Community Relations in MiningCommunity Relations in the mining industry encompass the dedicated efforts of a company to establish and nurture positive, mutually beneficial relationships with local communities affected by its operations. This aspect, a specific subset of broader Stakeholder Engagement strategies, emphasises direct interaction and collaboration with local residents, particularly during the mineral exploration phase.

Crucial Role in Mineral ExplorationDuring mineral exploration, effective Community Relations are vital. This stage often represents the first point of contact between a mining company and the local community, setting the foundation for future interactions. It's here that the company's commitment to understanding and addressing the unique environmental, economic, and social impacts on local communities is crucial. Tailoring strategies to meet local needs and integrating community perspectives can foster a collaborative and supportive atmosphere, essential for the exploration process.

Differentiating from SLO and Stakeholder EngagementWhile Community Relations align with the broader objectives of SLO and Stakeholder Engagement, they differ in their focused approach. SLO refers to the wider acceptance and approval from all stakeholders, including communities. In contrast, Community Relations specifically target actions and initiatives to support and engage local communities, a more concentrated effort compared to the extensive scope of Stakeholder Engagement, which encompasses all stakeholder groups.

Strategies for Effective Community Relations in ExplorationKey strategies in mineral exploration include:

• Developing community development programmes tailored to local needs.
• Implementing local hiring and procurement policies to support the local economy.
• Undertaking environmental conservation initiatives.
• Establishing regular, transparent communication channels to keep the community informed and engaged.

Best Practices in Community EngagementBest practices involve actively listening to community feedback, being responsive to their concerns, and incorporating their input into exploration planning. These practices are critical to ensuring operations are conducted with community consent and contribute positively to local well-being.

In conclusion, Community Relations is a pivotal element of a mining company's social engagement strategy, with a special focus on interactions with local communities during mineral exploration. Effective Community Relations are not only essential for the smooth progression of exploration projects but also contribute significantly to achieving SLO, forming an integral part of the comprehensive Stakeholder Engagement framework.

Comparative Analysis and Integration in Mineral ExplorationIn the realm of mineral exploration, the concepts of Social Licence to Operate (SLO), Social Performance (SP), Stakeholder Engagement, and Community Relations are interlinked and crucial for laying the groundwork for sustainable exploration practices.

Comparative Analysis SLO in exploration is about initial trust-building and acceptance by local communities and other stakeholders. It's a predictive indicator of the potential smoothness of future mining operations. * SP at this stage is about assessing and managing the initial social and environmental impacts, setting the tone for how a company will interact with the community and environment. * Stakeholder Engagement in exploration involves identifying and engaging with a broad spectrum of stakeholders early on, from local communities to environmental groups and government entities. * Community Relations* are particularly focused on establishing a positive rapport with local communities, addressing their specific concerns and expectations from the get-go.

Interdependencies Robust SP practices during exploration are foundational for achieving SLO. They underpin effective Stakeholder Engagement and establish the basis for solid Community Relations. * Stakeholder Engagement directly influences the ease of obtaining SLO and the effectiveness of SP, as early stakeholder insights guide the exploration process. * Strong Community Relations are a critical aspect of SLO*, especially since local community support can significantly impact the exploration phase.

Integrated Approach for Enhanced Exploration OutcomesAn integrated approach to these concepts during mineral exploration leads to more informed and responsible exploration strategies. By harmonising SLO, SP, Stakeholder Engagement, and Community Relations, mining companies can:

• Ensure early identification and mitigation of potential social and environmental risks.
• Build foundational trust and support, crucial for both immediate exploration activities and long-term mining operations.
• Create a more responsive and adaptable exploration strategy, attuned to stakeholder and community feedback.
• Lay the groundwork for sustainable and ethical mining practices from the outset, setting a precedent for future operational phases.

In mineral exploration, understanding and integrating these concepts is not just a regulatory necessity but a strategic advantage, fostering sustainable and community-respected exploration projects.

Conclusion: Integrating Key Concepts for Effective Mineral ExplorationThis article has navigated through the intricate dynamics of Social Licence to Operate (SLO), Social Performance (SP), Stakeholder Engagement, and Community Relations, particularly in the context of mineral exploration. Each of these elements, while distinct, interplays to form the backbone of responsible and sustainable exploration practices.

For junior miners and exploration companies, understanding and integrating these concepts is not a mere compliance exercise but a strategic imperative. Whether leading with SLO to establish initial trust and credibility, focusing on SP to manage social and environmental impacts, or engaging stakeholders to ensure diverse perspectives are considered, the key lies in the integration of these elements. This holistic approach fosters a resilient, adaptable exploration strategy that aligns with community expectations and environmental stewardship.

As the industry moves towards a future where mining harmonises with social responsibility and environmental sustainability, junior miners and exploration companies are encouraged to embrace these interconnected concepts. By doing so, they not only ensure compliance but also set a standard for operational excellence and long-term success in the mining sector.

View Details

By Jethro Norman; diis.dk

Published March 21, 2023

Since the mid-2000s the number of security professionals working for humanitarian organisations has increased significantly. This has important consequences for how humanitarian aid is delivered.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) created the first position solely dedicated to security in 1991, but for the next decade it was rare for humanitarian organisations to embed security professionals. After the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Baghdad in which the UN’s special representative in Iraq was killed, the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) was established.

However, attacks on aid workers increased throughout the 2000s in countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. Humanitarian organisations invested more in their security in response to these threats, as well as changing norms around humanitarian liability. In 2015, in a landmark ruling, an aid worker successfully sued the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) for gross negligence. In response, donors implemented increasingly stringent insurance protocols, and the demand for humanitarian security professionals continued to grow.

Today, virtually every international humanitarian organisation operating in an insecure region employs an international security professional, typically from a western military, police or private security background. Insights from long-term fieldwork with security contractors and aid workers in Sub-Saharan Africa (including Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan and Tanzania) shows that this has resulted in friction between the two groups, especially in relation to access and liability.

In recent years, several developments have strengthened the authority of security professionals over humanitarian staff. First, digital technologies have been increasingly used for information gathering, monitoring of staff and remote management. Second, as humanitarian security has become more structured and coordinated, new international organisations have emerged whose sole purpose is to provide security services to humanitarian clients. Whilst sometimes registered as non-profits, their function is not dissimilar to commercial private security companies, raising important questions about how the information they gather may be used beyond humanitarian purposes.

The logic of security in humanitarian operations can be fundamentally different from the security professional and aid worker’s respective viewpoints.

Friction in the fieldThe growing influence of security professionals has caused tensions in the field. A common complaint from aid workers is that security professionals bring an ‘Afghanistan and Iraq mentality’, forcing humanitarian organisations to adopt overly risk-averse or militarised security procedures, such as restrictive curfews and having to move around in armoured vehicles or with armed guards. These tensions are most acute regarding humanitarian access. Many, especially more seasoned aid workers, favour an approach based on community consent — building long-term relationships with community members to ensure safe access. They emphasise flexibility over procedure, relying on self-analysis of the environment rather than deferring to security protocol. Moreover, they at times question the accuracy of security managers’ information, citing examples of duplicated ‘copy and paste’ risk reporting.

By contrast, security managers argue that aid workers are not trained to understand security and often dismiss it as a tick-box exercise. They point out that many humanitarians spend only a short while in any given location, and are naïve to the risks, whereas some security professionals may spend years working in the same environment. In short, the logic of security in humanitarian operations can be fundamentally different from the security professional and aid worker’s respective viewpoints. This can lead to frequent struggles over authority.

Security technologiesThe growing use of digital technologies can further exacerbate these frictions and create new issues. Expanding internet connectivity, even in remote and dangerous areas, means that platforms such as Skype and WhatsApp are now an essential part of the everyday infrastructure of humanitarian security. Some larger humanitarian organisations are also experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI).

These technologies promise to increase the information gathering capabilities used to inform security decisions. However, both aid workers and security managers admit that these proliferating communication platforms can also become a source of rumour and misinformation. There is a tendency for speculation and to amplify the most radical, ‘worst-case’ scenarios. Moreover, whilst more incidents may be reported, the wider context to these incidents is often missing, as this relies on building long-term relationships with trusted informants.

These technologies also enable remote management by security experts. They can be used to monitor staff, and to justify increased security measures. Digital technologies can therefore reinforce ‘bunkerisation’: the tendency for international humanitarian staff to stay within securitised compounds and capital cities instead of going to ‘deep’ field sites. In turn, this transfers risk onto local-national staff and can deepen the divide between them and expatriate humanitarian staff.

New humanitarian-security organisationsAs humanitarian security has become more professionalised, structured and coordinated, several global platforms have emerged whose sole purpose is to provide security for humanitarian organisations. They provide a range of services including a 24/7 threat warning service, SMS alerts, quantitative data mapping and analysis, crisis assistance and humanitarian training.

Two of the largest of these platforms are the International NGO Security Organisation and Partner Liaison Security Organisation. The former registered as a charity in 2011 in order to consolidate different humanitarian security programs into a single ‘globally-coordinated mechanism’. It has expanded across the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe, with over 800 subscribed NGOs. The latter is another membership-based platform but is funded by USAID and only provides security services to overseas US-affiliated NGOs and subcontractors.

Whilst many humanitarians benefit from these services, there are still strong critics. These platforms operate in the same conflict-prone areas, which can lead to both competition and repetition. For example, in South Sudan alone, there are three such humanitarian security platforms active. In this context, some humanitarians complain of an overload of information, and of information becoming more reactive than analytical — events may be recorded, but there is little understanding of why they occurred. Moreover, because these new entities have an interest in monopolising information, pre-existing informal networks of communication based on trust between humanitarian organisations and other actors may be weakened.

Whilst humanitarian organisations feed much of the information into these platforms, there is sometimes mistrust over their intentions. For example, the contract to implement the Partner Liaison Security Organisation in Kenya was previously awarded to a private security company, who effectively gained the privilege to gather sensitive political, economic and security information about areas of emerging commercial interest through a pre-existing network of humanitarian actors. This raises questions about how security information gathered for humanitarian purposes might be used by private security actors for commercial purposes. It also potentially threatens the impartiality and neutrality of humanitarian organisations.

Moving forwardThe employment of security professionals in humanitarian operations is now a firmly entrenched practice that shows little sign of changing. As such, it is even more important to evaluate the potentially negative consequences of this development. Donors and INGOs should be aware of the tensions between security managers and humanitarians in the field and consider the long-term consequences of increasing security budgets for humanitarian operations. On the ground, humanitarian organisations should ensure there are clear boundaries between security and non-security responsibilities, to avoid clashes over authority. Finally, in the context of the growing proximity between security professionals and humanitarian actors and the use of digital technologies, we need greater scrutiny and oversight over the way in which sensitive information circulates beyond humanitarian organisations.

View Details

By Hughey Newsome; forbes.com

Published February 28, 2023

The SEC’s proposed climate rule, set to take effect in April 2023, is indicative of how the world has prioritized climate change and environmental degradation. However, the principles behind ESG and sustainability require us, as society, to consider social-based risks, not just environmental-based risks.

There is an “S” in ESG for a reason.

In the proposed climate rule, there are roughly 99 mentions of the term ESG. The rule was crafted to standardize what investors had been requesting – how companies disclose their impact on and adaptation to climate change driven by greenhouse gases. The SEC observes that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce conducted a study of publicly traded companies across 17 industries, and it found that more than half publish information in some form under the pretext of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), sustainability or ESG. But the survey also found that less than half of the recipients who disclose climate-related information to the public do so in regulatory filings.

While the SEC’s climate rule focuses on a major factor associated with the “E” in “ESG,” what about social-based risks? These risks are more difficult to account for than environmental ones since there is no consensus on what to measure, which means there are fewer data sets available compared to carbon emissions. Moreover, social issues tend to be more of a lightning rod for political criticism.

But discipline is necessary. The concept of ESG arguably began in 2004 when then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan wrote to more than 50 CEOs of financial institutions, imploring them to integrate environmental and social risks into investment making frameworks. In 2015, the UN adopted 17 sustainable development goals, which in theory were important for the sustainability of a livable planet by 2030 and beyond.

A lot of attention is paid to Goal 13, which states the world must take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. The goal’s stated premise is: “To limit warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as set out in the Paris Agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak before 2025.” The focus on curbing greenhouse gases is merited, as the goal of mitigating carbon emissions to avert a climate catastrophe is not currently in reach. The world is not on track, per the International Panel on Climate Change.

While there are other environmental goals, this one has become paramount – partially thanks to ESG, which is a tool to measure risks based on climate change. As ESG has matured, it has provided a framework to assess how financial institutions and the companies they fund impact climate change, as well as the impact climate change will have on such investments.

But Goal 13 is not the only goal the UN agreed is necessary for a sustainability on earth. Indeed, goals 1-6, 8, 10 and 16 directly deal with how we as humans interact with one another and how we ensure a certain standard of living for all humans. This, along with the other goals, all collectively ensure that inequities that lead to conflict and oppression are avoided. More importantly, dealing with environmental-focused goals (like No. 7, 11, 12, 14 and 15) without dealing with human-based goals compromises the effectiveness of those environmental goals. For example, if we move the planet to renewable energy and avert a climate crisis without ensuring all people have access to the new system, then certain populations would either experience substandard living conditions, or revert to carbon-intensive energy and jeopardize the conversion to renewables.

This inextricable link is sometimes overlooked. It is part of the foundation of the environmental justice movement, which focuses on the inequitable impact of climate change and pollution on the poor and underrepresented communities. If those impacts are going to be lessened or eliminated, we must prioritize the impact on those very populations. Before the birth of the environmental justice movement in the last quarter of the 20th century, previous efforts focused on natural conservation and biodiversity, but they sometimes failed to address the inequitable impacts of environmental harms. The New Yorker posted a revealing story about the historic roots of the National Park Service and the Sierra Club, for example. John Audubon, for whom several Audubon organizations are named, had a history of extremely racist views (and many of those Audubon organizations have changed their names in the wake of the modern social justice movement, including one of which I serve on the board of directors).

It's a stretch to say the SEC climate rule ignores the plight of communities disproportionately impacted by climate change or other environmental degradations. Additionally, the SEC is looking to regulate existing disclosures to ensure investors have standardized, accurate information when climate change risks are provided by public companies. The SEC alone cannot prioritize developing the metrics, data sets, standards, technology, and educational depth developed to measure greenhouse gas emissions. The point of this piece is not to castigate the rule, as it is a badly needed step to require and normalize climate-based disclosures. Instead, this piece is meant to challenge all champions of ESG and sustainability. While the “S” has gotten some attention, we have work to do to standardize how we measure and report its impact.

ESG champions cannot forget about these social-based goals. If climate targets are met but inequities and oppressions continue to grow, the preservation of our standard of life still might be unsustainable.

View Details

By Victoria Schneider; news.mongabay.com

Published March 13, 2023

• Environmental and social impact assessments as they’re implemented in development projects across Africa need a “shake-up” to ensure they’re fit for purpose, experts say.
• Georgine Kengne, from the WoMin African Alliance, says the ideal ESIA process would be one in which “the government and the mining company are not just colluding to make profits.”
• Morgan Hauptfleisch, a professor of nature conservation in Namibia, says the fundamental problem is that ESIAs and other safeguards can simply be ignored with little consequence other than fines that the companies just budget for anyway.
• Mongabay spoke with both Kengne and Hauptfleisch about ESIAs, community participation, and the underused tool that is the strategic environmental assessment (SEA).

Environmental and social impact assessments (ESIA) have become an important tool for decision-makers around the world to explore and understand the impacts of proposed development projects on the wider ecosystem.

They’re supposed to measure — and ensure that mechanisms are put in place to manage — the possible negative impacts on ecosystems and affected communities. For local communities and Indigenous peoples, ESIAs should be a keystone of free, prior and informed consent. Through these assessments, local communities, scientists, environmentalists and other interested and affected parties should be able to learn what a project entails, and be given a platform to voice their concerns about risks, changes or losses it might bring.

The studies and consultation surrounding an ESIA also allow companies or investors to respond to criticism and explore alternatives, while being pushed to develop adequate mitigation measures and fair compensation schemes.

For governments, ESIAs are meant to be the entry point into a development, providing authorities with the information necessary to understand the potential costs and benefits of a project not only in terms of strategic and economic goals, but also in terms of how it will affect the lives and livelihoods of citizens and the health of the land and water it will be sited on. Without environmental and social assessments, governments can’t make truly informed decisions.

But are ESIAs fit for purpose?

Georgine Kengne, coordinator for Consent & the Right to Say No at the WoMin African Alliance, tells Mongabay that in her experience communities are frequently not aware of what is happening and mining companies try to complete a positive assessment as quickly as possible to satisfy regulatory authorities.

“While the document is there, and the respective mining company claims that the ESIA was done, it’s difficult to find someone in the community who was actually part of the process,” she says.

Morgan Hauptfleisch, a wildlife and environmental scientist and associate professor for nature conservation at the Namibia University of Science and Technology, tells Mongabay, that, “in practice, communities have to step aside when resources are discovered underground.”

“I think from that perspective, communities are often ignored, or targeted people within the communities are asked to buy into a project and then they represent the community,” he says.

Mongabay spoke with both Georgine Kengne and Morgan Hauptfleisch about the effectiveness of the current ESIA model in Africa, what the ideal ESIA would look like, and the different understandings of what constitutes “sustainable.” The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Mongabay: South Africa’s National Environmental Management Act has guidelines for both environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and public participation in them. How does this legislation compare to that of other African countries, and what should or could an environmental social impact assessment ideally be?

Morgan Hauptfleisch: Most of Africa’s legislation is very similar. South Africa was one of the earliest ones and a lot of the rest of Africa’s environmental impact assessment tools come from that. South Africa’s guidelines in turn came from where it was started in the big financing corporations like the World Bank, or the Inter-American Development Bank.

The problem lies mostly in the implementation of the legislation and in the follow-up monitoring. Even if the teeth of the laws are all in, the question is: is the EIA implemented?

It’s about the auditing, and about the government agencies going out and making sure they’re compliant because the EIA statements or documents are law. It’s about whether the environmental management plans or legal requirements are being implemented. And if there’s nobody checking on that, it doesn’t get done.

Mongabay: Who should be checking on them?

Morgan Hauptfleisch: In South Africa, you’ve got the provincial agencies that need to do that, and in Namibia the national agency. But a lot of that is also something that donor agencies should do, the World Bank for instance, if it’s a big development project in a country. They have their environmental safeguards and often it’s them that do more follow-up than the governments themselves, holding developers to account.

Georgine Kengne: There are so many instruments a government can use to make sure that the human rights of people or communities are protected. An ESIA is one of them. It’s very important to know that wherever it is done, it should go hand in hand with the constitution of the country. We need to know what are the side effects? What are the negative impacts?

And we also need to make sure that there is a process of monitoring, and that the agreement is mutually respected.

Mongabay: From your experience, what are the barriers for communities to participate in the process? Is there a gap between what the law says and how it reaches communities?

Morgan Hauptfleisch: In Namibia, we have what is called the Community-Based Natural Resource Management program, the CBNRM. I might be biased, but I believe it is one of the world’s best examples of wildlife and natural resources management, since they are totally managed, owned and utilized at community level across almost half of the country. If they can show that they protect, for example, the elephant population, then they can get benefits from that, mostly through joint-venture tourism.

Those communities have to comply with lots of requirements on how to protect their resources, so they invest a lot of their time and energy into doing that. But then the mineral prospect licenses are handed out by the government without really considering or consulting with those communities. And if you look at our EIA legislation, it is the EIA practitioners who should be raising the conservancy flag and saying that people have to be consulted properly.

But generally it seems to be an unwritten rule that, when there are resources underground, communities have to step aside. Therefore you’ve got this dilemma where communities are being made aware of how important it is to protect the resources, nature, the environment through the CBNRM but then they see their government giving out prospecting licenses which, in most cases, are going to be quite destructive to the environment, and that disillusions them.

There is a paper where we looked back at environmental impact assessments over the last 50 years, and it shows that ESIA is often used to get an endorsement, or a clearance, and they [the company] say that society therefore believes that this is a good project to go ahead with.

Georgine Kengne: Mining companies mainly operate in rural areas, where Indigenous communities are living. When they come, they speak in colonial language. So it is very clear that the community members may not participate or may not be aware of all the things they are talking about. And they may also not be aware of some of their rights. This gap exists.

And then there are the tricks the mining companies are using, as mentioned by Morgan. They make sure that certain community members are ignored or avoided and rather buy up some key personalities in the community.

The mining company needs to know that it is really very important for communities to understand. That means that all information about a project which is coming into a community needs to be given to the people in the language they understand, ideally in their mother tongue. That is one of the requirements of FPIC, the free, prior and informed consent.

Mongabay: What would the ideal ESIA process be like?

Georgine Kengne: The process needs to ensure that the government and the mining company are not just colluding to make profits, like it is happening now. Because now it is all about a capitalistic system, companies are trying to get what they want without taking care of the environment. When the community is not part of the process, it creates social conflict which will persist, as we can see in cases like in the Niger Delta, where Shell has been operating.

Or in Bomboré, in Burkina Faso, where the community was saying that they know that the [gold mining] company is coming, but they didn’t know the life span of the project. And they had not been given any information that they needed to plan this new life.

So in an ideal process the mining companies have to make sure that the communities are part of the process, and not only communities, but especially women who are traditionally the ones taking care of the water and the land. They nurture land, they know how to take care of the soil, and they are much closer to land than men, who are most of the time called to speak on behalf of the community.

Morgan Hauptfleisch: ESIA as it stands actually needs quite a shake-up.

The tool has become a checklist to enable development, and the concept of stakeholder communication, or as Georgine said, the FPIC model has been so well understood and manipulated. I think that you can get a community to agree to whatever if you do it the right way. So a really ethically regulated environmental practitioner group is what I think is important.

In South Africa, you have to register environmental assessment practitioners (EAP). And I know that there is a professional body, and they get registered with the government. The same in Botswana. I’m not sure about Cameroon, but in Namibia it’s not, so anybody can do an EIA, you don’t need to have particular qualifications, you just have to comply with what the legislation requires. That’s when you get the fly-by-nights, unethical operators that write the sweet dog reports for the companies.

I think the practitioners have to be regulated so they can [be held to] some sort of accountability, because here in Namibia [anyone] could do an EIA report. Being accountable would stop them in a way from doing just what the company wants and look at the risks more closely.

Mongabay: Does the practice of a company having to pay the consultants to do the EIA stand in the way of accountability?

Morgan Hauptfleisch: I think it’s fine if the company pays, it should be them paying for it. But the EAP, according to the law, needs to be able to stay independent. Like an engineer: if a wall collapses in someone’s house, the engineer has to hold some sort of accountability. Now an EIA often has a much bigger impact on communities than a wall collapsing.

Mongabay: South Africa’s NEMA has a clause that says an environmental impact assessment is there to ensure sustainable development. But what is sustainable development? And who defines that?

Morgan Hauptfleisch: Well, that’s the utopia … the Brundtland Report of 1987 was where the term was established. Then the Rio Convention followed from that and all the EIA goals. But I think it now means so many different things.

I don’t think any development really is sustainable with 8 billion people on Earth, if I look at it from a philosophical perspective. And it does get abused, you can say that it used to be all about sustainability and the environment and pollution and then COVID came along and suddenly sustainability meant something different, it meant hygiene.

And that was it, the world decided that. If you look at the environmental safeguards, and the debate about climate change — of which sustainability is a part — it’s not about sustainability anymore, it’s about what’s happening because of climate change.

So an EIA must go back to its most basic form of minimizing the environmental impacts of a development. I don’t think that in countries like Namibia, where you have 35-40% unemployment, anything is going to stop a development project. But an EIA must minimize the impacts of it as far as it can.

Georgine Kengne: Sometimes governments might come to the conclusion that they have to mine. But there are things they can implement, like no-go zones. And there are ways to make sure that the waste of a mining company can be treated. But that costs money which the companies don’t want to spend. There are things that can be done, but mostly they don’t do it.

What I can say is that nothing is impossible when it comes to protecting Mother Earth. And also, there are other ways; mining is not the only thing we have to do to survive, and some governments have decided against it.

We have to do the checks and balances.

Mongabay: There are different views on “sustainability.” A mining company would probably say it’s more sustainable to bring this mine into operation because we’re going to make sure that everyone has to eat for the next few years; while an Indigenous community would say we want our soil because, for us, sustainable development has a very different form.

Morgan Hauptfleisch: Yeah, and it might quite well be that, in that case, the mine is the better option.

One thing the EIA is supposed to do is minimize the impact, but then the decision-maker on the development needs to ask: Can this development take place, and still maintain, as far as possible, what communities need?

And after you’ve minimized that impact, how do you weigh up the benefits against the residual impacts or the impacts on communities, and that’s tough. We’ve got the environmental commissioner in Namibia, and you’ve got the Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa, and they need to make this decision. It’s extremely subjective.

Mongabay: What role does a strategic environmental assessment (SEA) play? Or could it play?

Morgan Hauptfleisch: I think it’s something that doesn’t get used often enough.

The big issue with an ESIA is it only looks at a site. So if you have a lodge along the Kavango River, for example, and the EIA gets done for that lodge, it only looks at that specific area. But if there are 600 other lodges on the same river, nobody would look at that — that’s what the strategic environmental assessment is supposed to do. And it’s actually written into Namibia’s law that the government can trigger this for either the cumulative impacts of an area or of a sector.

In Uganda, Ghana and then in Timor-Leste in Asia, they did SEAs to see whether an oil sector is something that their environment and their government in terms of safeguards could actually handle; we did it in Namibia with the uranium sector, because there was this rush for uranium as an electricity source. The SEA was one of these fashionable things and it’s still available as a tool, but I think in the last four or five years, it’s something that has been ignored.

Mongabay: Do you feel communities are gaining momentum to know about their rights and speak up?

Georgine Kengne: We can see that the communities are resisting, they want to be part of any process affecting their lives. But it’s not a matter of creating legislation. It’s a matter of making sure that they are enforced.

The process of FPIC was distorted. I think that an ESIA shouldn’t be distorted. So if it is well done, we may get rid of some of the issues we are facing and also some of the poverty.

Mongabay: So the big question is: who can actually hold everyone accountable?

Morgan Hauptfleisch: I think that’s probably one of the biggest things at the root of this, the fact that we can break any convention we want and nothing will happen. The U.N. has become irrelevant. We can break any convention. Or we can withdraw from a convention if we like. It’s sad, but it’s the way it is.

However, South Africa has been good with that, with giving out fines, or doing investigations through the Green Scorpions [environmental compliance officials at the national, provincial and municipal levels]. But in other cases I know that companies pay fines much as we pay electricity bills. Then there is something wrong with the legislation, because companies just budget for it.

View Details

By Sylvie Corbet; apnews.com

Published February 28, 2023

A French court on Tuesday dismissed a case brought against TotalEnergies by activists contending that the energy company’s major oil projects in east Africa violated the human rights of the region’s inhabitants and posed environmental risks.

The court said the groups deviated from proceedings by presenting claims during a December court hearing that were “substantially different” than those made in 2019 when they initially filed their lawsuit.

The six Ugandan and French groups said the company’s oil extraction and pipeline projects completely or partially adversely impacted the lands of approximately 118,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania and that tens of thousands are still awaiting compensation.

TotalEnergies has argued that its planning “has been implemented effectively” and that its Ugandan and Tanzanian affiliates “have applied the appropriate action plans to respect the rights of local communities and ensure respect for biodiversity.”

The company said about 8,500 households are affected in Uganda, most of which have received compensation. It added that most of about 9,500 households have signed a compensation deal in Tanzania, where the project is less advanced.

In a joint statement, the activist groups said they “strongly deplored” the ruling.

“It’s a very unfortunate decision,” Dickens Kamugisha, head of one of the groups, the Uganda-based African Institute for Energy Governance, told the Associated Press. He regretted the court’s ruling was based on procedural grounds and not on the merits of the case.

Juliette Renaud, from the Friends of the Earth France association, said the ruling is yet another opportunity missed by French justice “to put and end to multiple ongoing violations in Uganda and Tanzania.”

Pauline Tétillon, co-president of the French-based Survie group, said the ruling sidesteps the substance of the case which is the projects’ consequences on people, the environment and the climate.

Tuesday’s ruling was the first based on 2017 “duty of vigilance” legislation that makes big companies liable for risks to human rights and the environment — even if any infractions are committed by foreign affiliates and subcontractors.

Oil drilling has recently begun in Uganda in a field operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, as part of the joint deal with TotalEnergies. Production is expected to start by 2025. Both groups said last year that the total investment would be more than $10 billion.

Construction is to start this year on the 897-mile (1,443-kilometer) East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, planned by TotalEnergies and CNOOC, between Uganda and the Indian Ocean port of Tanga in Tanzania. Authorities have described it as the world’s longest heated oil pipeline.

Uganda is estimated to have recoverable oil reserves of at least 1.4 billion barrels.

Some oil wells are to be drilled within western Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park, where the Nile plummets 130 feet (40 meters) through a gap just 20 feet (6 meters) wide and the surrounding wilderness is home to hippos, egrets, giraffes and antelopes. The pipeline would then pass through seven forest reserves and two game parks, running alongside Lake Victoria, a source of fresh water for 40 million people.

That ecological fragility is one reason why some activists oppose the project despite assurances from TotalEnergies that the pipeline’s state-of-the-art-design will ensure safety for decades.

Ugandan authorities see the oil drilling project and the pipeline as key to economic development, saying oil wealth could help lift millions out of poverty. Some see condemnation of the pipeline as an assault on the country’s sovereignty.

President Yoweri Museveni vowed in September that the project would proceed, with or without TotalEnergies. Uganda would “find someone else to work with” if necessary, he said.

At the time, European Union lawmakers had passed a non-binding resolution urging the international community “to exert maximum pressure on Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities, as well as the project promoters and stakeholders” to stop oil activities in the region.

That resolution cited human rights concerns focusing on fair compensation for affected communities as well as environmental fears.

View Details

In this episode, I have the pleasure to chat to Liam Strang, the Global Head of Security and Crisis at Sightsavers. Sightsavers is a pretty cool organization. It's an international NGO that works to prevent and cure avoidable blindness, and it promotes equality for people with visual impairments mostly in developing countries.

Now, this is obviously cool in and of itself, but what I find really interesting is because of the success in relatively stable parts of the world, their mission is now compelling them to work in increasingly riskier jurisdictions. And to cope with this Sightsavers has evolved highly integrated program and security functions. Listen as Liam shares his experience working within this sector.

View Details

By Marco Alfano & Thomas Cornelissen; theconversation.com

Published February 14, 2023

Policymakers tend to assume that the effects of conflict are felt only where violence occurs. As a result, humanitarian aid, protection efforts or asylum policies largely focus on conflict-hit areas.

The World Health Organisation, for instance, provides emergency medical supplies in areas directly affected by violence. The UN Refugee Agency ties protection status to residing in areas hit by conflict.

Our recent study finds, however, that conflict negatively affects food security, nutrition, health and education outcomes of families living hundreds of kilometres away from the epicentre of violence.

This underscores the need to broaden policy responses to conflict and consider its ripple effects.

Our research in Somalia examined how the impact of violent conflict spread to distant locations. We looked specifically at conflict that affected Somalia’s food logistics network, which gets food to far-flung markets.

We focused on Somalia because of its high number of terror incidents arising from the government’s war with Al-Shabaab, a militant group that has terrorised the country’s southern region for about 15 years.

We used data from the Food and Agricultural Organisation, which tracks food prices. Our results show that terrorist attacks that hit food transportation networks increased food prices in markets located up to 900km away (a 17-hour drive) from where the violence occurs.

In response to these terrorist attacks and resulting price increases, households in far-flung areas adjusted their eating patterns. They also reduced their non-food spending, primarily on health and education.

Yet, the responses to violent incidents by donor and aid agencies, as well as domestic policymakers, hardly take such ripple effects into consideration.

Tracking conflictTo track these ripple effects, we focused on the distribution of maize, a staple food eaten throughout Somalia. We got the geo-coordinates of maize growing areas, tracked how maize was transported by road to markets, and mapped the Al-Shabaab terrorist attacks that occurred along these transport routes.

This helped us map the impact of conflict on maize prices and the ripple effects on household welfare.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network provides maps showing the exact routes taken by Somali drivers who are transporting maize. We drew a corridor of five kilometres around these roads and counted the number of violent incidents occurring each month between 2001 and 2018. The Food and Agricultural Organisation provided us with monthly maize price information for 10 markets across Somalia.

We combined this data with World Bank surveys that recorded food consumption, eating patterns, and the health and education of Somali families.

Our findingsWe found that conflict along transportation roads increased maize prices substantially, even in markets located hundreds of kilometres away. This finding is in line with studies on the impact of conflict on supply chain networks elsewhere in the world, such as in the Russia-Ukraine war.

During the height of the Al-Shabaab insurgency in Somalia (between 2016 and 2018), violent incidents occurring very close to transportation roads alone increased maize prices by around 11% over sustained periods of time.

During these times, we found violence en route had around half as large an impact on maize prices as rainfall, which the World Bank has highlighted as one of the most important determinants of food prices.

We also scrutinised satellite images of nightlights emitted on transportation roads. We found that conflict along transit roads dimmed the light emitted on these roads several hundreds of kilometres away. This decrease in road traffic underscores a reduction in the quantity of maize transported along roads from growing areas to markets.

Looking at family welfare, we found that households reported having to adjust their eating patterns due to food price shocks. Families substituted the more expensive maize with sorghum. Still, we found that lower food security decreased the nourishment available to households.

Considering child outcomes, we found that far-away conflict along transit routes increased the incidence of diseases, such as gastroenteritis, malaria and typhoid. This is in line with well-known links between malnutrition and infectious diseases.

Finally, we also found a decrease in the school enrolment of children. Violent incidents along maize transportation routes reduced the probability of children joining primary and middle school hundreds of kilometres away. This is likely to be related to the economic effects of food price rises. This makes schooling less affordable and increases the incentives for child labour.

Way forwardOur study has wide-ranging policy implications.

The ripple effects of violence have important welfare costs. The negative effects of conflict on human capital – particularly nutrition, health and education – are larger than commonly assumed. We estimate that these ripples add around 30% to the cost of locally occurring conflict.

Our findings also have important implications for the regional targeting of policies.

Humanitarian interventions or refugee policies most commonly focus on those locations where conflict occurs. The World Food Programme, for instance, provides nutritional assistance in areas around Mogadishu, in the south-west of Somalia where most conflict is concentrated.

Similarly, when evaluating asylum eligibility, the UN Refugee Agency highlights the south-west of Somalia as the area where individuals are at risk of serious harm.

By contrast, our results provide evidence that individuals can be affected by conflict even if it occurs far away. For instance, the city of Galkayo (700km from Mogadishu) is part of the north-eastern Puntland state. It isn’t covered by either the World Food Programme or the UN’s refugee policies. Yet conflict in the south-west increases food prices, decreases food security and erodes human capital in Galkayo.

This long reach of violence highlights the need to consider extending humanitarian aid, protection efforts or asylum status eligibility to areas further away from conflict epicentres.

View Details

By Nosmot Gbadamosi; foreignpolicy.com

Published February 8, 2023

A landmark class-action lawsuit in South Africa could set a precedent for holding multinational corporations responsible for environmental damages.Anglo American, one of the world’s largest mining companies, has been accused of turning a “blind eye” to decades of lead poisoning suffered by hundreds of thousands of people living near a Zambian mine that it held a stake in for nearly 50 years, according to a landmark case in the Johannesburg branch of South Africa’s High Court.

The lawsuit alleges that the British firm continued to profit from the extraction and smelting of lead from the mine in Kabwe, Zambia, without ensuring that proper safety standards were met, even when it knew the great harm being caused.

An eight-day hearing that concluded on Friday will decide whether a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of as many as 140,000 women and children can proceed. The lawsuit was filed in Johannesburg because Anglo American was headquartered there when it held a majority stake in the lead mine in Kabwe from 1925 until 1974, when it was nationalized by the Zambian government—before eventually being closed in 1994.

Blood lead levels in children living in Kabwe are many times higher than the poisoning standard amount of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter adopted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although the CDC and the World Health Organization advise that there is no safe level of lead, many children tested in Kabwe had levels at more than 45 micrograms, causing heart, brain, and liver damage. Numerous investigations since 1971, when eight children died of suspected lead poisoning, have found alarmingly high levels of lead in local children.

Lawyers based in the United Kingdom and South Africa are demanding compensation and an environmental cleanup. If successful, it could set a precedent as one of the largest class-action lawsuits for historical damages caused by extractive corporations that will be heard in an African court, as opposed to courts in the U.K., the Netherlands, the United States, or France, where companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, and Total are (or have been) based.

“It is quite clear that generally for an African community to really get recourse, they need to follow where the company’s money is, and the money is so often not in the global south,” said Ariella Scher, an attorney and the head of the business and human rights program at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies in Johannesburg. What makes the case significant, she said, is the provisions that South African law allows in terms of class-action litigation, compared with more limited avenues in Zambia, and the potential to hold large corporations accountable within Africa.

Anglo American denies liability, arguing that it provided “technical services” but never “owned or operated” the mine. Instead, Anglo American places the blame on the Zambian government through the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines and other minority stakeholders, which it says acknowledged “responsibility for all historic liabilities” following nationalization.

Anglo American signed up to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which it heavily promotes as part of its corporate responsibility literature. U.N. experts have argued through their intervention that by opposing the class-action suit, Anglo American is behaving “contrary” to its “professed commitments” on human rights.

Zambian authorities continue to emphasize metals extraction as a key driver of economic growth—accounting for more than 40 percent of government revenue—despite concerns around the lack of benefits it has offered residents thus far. More than half of the country’s population lives in poverty.

At last year’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema announced that California-based KoBold Metals, an exploration firm backed by billionaires Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson, would invest $150 million to develop a new copper mine in Zambia. Zambia is Africa’s second-largest producer of copper—a metal critical to the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

It’s part of the Biden administration’s efforts to wrest economic influence from Beijing through the use of private U.S. companies.

The deal is set to close by the first quarter of this year. China is currently Zambia’s largest infrastructure creditor and has a heavy presence in the country. Hichilema is also pursuing new copper mine deals with Chinese firms.

The push to capitalize on renewable energy demands will likely cause similar pollution problems for Zambians. As Cobus van Staden wrote in Foreign Policy last June, the green energy revolution threatens to repeat “a trail of environmental degradation, human rights violations, and semipermanent underdevelopment all across the developing world” because it uses the same destructive extraction methods.

View Details

By Kim Polley; dailymaverick.co.za

Published January 29 , 2023

Responsible sourcing should be at the top of the agenda for multinationals. But many green technologies — which we advocate in our war on climate change — rely on the use of minerals sourced in high-risk areas with poor human rights records.

In the last 12 months, the world came out of a heightened state of pandemic panic and headed directly into climate crisis consciousness. Amid a tornado of messages predicting the end of the world, it’s no wonder that people are scrambling to find someone to blame. And predictably, big business makes an outsized climate catastrophe target.

Practically speaking, stakeholder expectations around safety, environmental management, decarbonisation and corporate responsibility have become increasingly difficult to navigate.

For the mining sector — and with next week’s Mining Indaba in Cape Town (6-9 February) in mind — this is driving an urgency to address external perceptions of business operations with proactive environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies, particularly when investors are looking to understand societal value beyond the financials.

Key, in this context, is an appreciation of ESG’s potential to unlock value and mitigate risk for responsible miners.

Protecting people pays dividendsHealth and safety is a long-standing issue for the mining industry — and is also one that materially affects the social licence to operate as it carries the potential for significant community impact.

There are now increasing expectations of shared-value outcomes from mining projects. Any misstep can affect the ability to access capital, or even result in a complete loss of licence — particularly in light of the increased use of social media, which makes potentially negative publicity more globally visible than ever before.

Achieving optimal health and safety levels has been especially taxing in the last two years as maintaining business continuity during Covid-19 came at a high cost. Mines faced added expenses relating to new health protocols, the introduction of testing equipment, and ensuring that the workforce was supported appropriately.

At the same time, the pandemic has heightened stakeholder expectations around how miners prepare for, manage and monitor all high-impact risk exposures.

On a positive note, in Africa the pandemic re-emphasised that a mining operation is an extension of the community in which it operates. Mining companies must now demonstrate the highest levels of integrity, transparency and collaboration to maintain good relationships with host communities.

This was evidenced by how mining companies and communities collaborated to fight the pandemic, working together to limit, as much as possible, losses in production.

A tougher environmental climateMining companies are facing sharper scrutiny of the way they handle environmental issues, including pollution, wastewater management, habitat protection and site remediation. This growing emphasis on ethics and sustainability is being driven by customers, investors, regulators and industry initiatives — as well as a genuine desire among some companies to conduct their operations in a more sustainable way.

Decarbonisation strategies are becoming a focus too, and some of the larger players have already outlined their plans to decarbonise operations. However, for many in the mining sector, especially junior miners, costs can seem prohibitive.

But perceived inadequate progress towards net zero may threaten their ability to access capital in an increasingly tight market. Mining companies that power their operations with renewable energy, operate electric or hydrogen-powered truck fleets and integrate recycling in their value chains will be best placed to sell low-carbon premium minerals.

Although the mining industry has a chequered history when it comes to environmental management, it has an important place in a responsible investment portfolio. Because of the significant contribution mining makes to many countries’ GDPs, the success of the much-needed global transition towards clean energy may, to some degree, depend on the mining sector.

Going to the sourceResponsible sourcing should be at the top of the agenda for multinationals. The issues within this are multiple, ranging from deforestation and land appropriation to modern slavery and indigenous rights abuses … to name but a few. An example of this is the responsible sourcing of conflict minerals, which interestingly, is one of the great contradictions — or tensions — of the global transition to clean energy.

This is because many green technologies — which we advocate for in our war on climate change — rely on the use of minerals sourced in high-risk areas with poor human rights practices.

One of the most significant examples of this is cobalt, an essential component in the cathodes of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that are used to power electric vehicles and store renewable energy. Cobalt is sourced mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country recognised as being at the centre of many conflict minerals debates.

While we are starting to see stronger supply chain governance for certain minerals, these initiatives have not yet been expanded to include most of the minerals and metals central to green energy technologies.

And green technologies are critical to the success of our global movement to counter the effects of climate change.

It’s a balancing act. While a wide array of stakeholders is calling for mining companies to go beyond legislative requirements and implement a broader approach to responsible sourcing, how we practically implement that approach is going to be interesting to watch.

Mining the opportunitiesAmid these challenges, miners have an opportunity to deliver value to external stakeholders while maintaining strong performance. Attaining these ambitious but achievable goals begins with miners taking responsibility for helping to overhaul the image of the industry. That means engaging sincerely on the value they are adding to local communities and economies, and working to ensure that key stakeholders are taken along on the journey.

That also speaks to increasing transparency around ESG — both in terms of what an investor’s ESG evaluation criteria look like and what companies are actually doing to address their responsibilities.

Because, let’s face it, a key commercial driver for mining companies to implement stronger ESG measures is the ability to attract capital. And investors are increasingly integrating ESG into their investment process to help secure capital during fundraising, to identify risks during due diligence, to capitalise on opportunities post-acquisition and to facilitate credible information disclosure on exit.

Part of the process may involve educating the investment community, which arguably still places too much weight on the traditional disclosure model. The fundamental flaw is that currently this still relies on information provided by the company, which is polished to as rosy a glow as possible.

Rather, we should be looking at the realities around that business as a contributor to how we measure real ESG contribution. This includes monitoring the conversations about a business in the media and on social media, the quality of its management of ESG issues, what the company’s internal policies or process flows indicate about its ethos, how effectively and transparently it responds to an ESG crisis, as well as giving much more credit for sustainable social-value creation: result rather than commitment.

Shared value initiatives that extend to a host community’s ability to thrive beyond the miner’s operations or presence there should be prized. Doing ESG better by approaching it more holistically and robustly, that’s the opportunity for responsible miners.

It’s a win-win-win for people, planet and profit.

View Details

By businessdailyafrica.com

Published January 31, 2023

Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest cement maker builds elementary schools free of charge in villages where they operate, sparing local children a dangerous commute along busy highways.

Ghanaian mining concern AngloGold Ashanti has been in talks to relinquish land it once controlled back to the community.

Jumia, the pan-African online retailer, has committed to increasing its roster of female tech employees, last reported at 22 percent.

Large African firms are making strides to improve community well-being, strengthening their social license to operate.

They are part of the great global tide of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement pushing businesses to pursue better outcomes for all.

It seems like a no-brainer – so why aren’t more African businesses and governments on board?

Perhaps they are sceptical. The rise in recent years of stakeholder capitalism, which factors ESG considerations into investment decisions, has triggered a backlash.

Critics contend that money managers who dare lift their gaze beyond a company’s balance sheet do so in violation of their fiduciary duty.

For them, ESG amounts to fuzzy math and wish fulfilment, lacking in rigour and subject to the dictates of social justice bullies.

In America, for example, more than a dozen states have passed or introduced anti-ESG legislation to date.

What a collective crow of satisfaction there must have been last month, when news broke that more than $8 trillion in investments previously characterised by trendwatchers as ‘sustainable’ had been reclassified, in anticipation of tighter anti-greenwashing regulations soon to come from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Greenwashing may be down the priority list for anti-ESG agitators, the most vocal of whom seem to prefer their capitalism unwashed.

But regulations that enforce consistency in ESG metrics and prevent money managers from making spurious sustainability claims should be applauded by proponents and critics alike.

When pro- and anti-ESG camps tug the rope from opposite ends, both sides help straighten the sag in ESG standardisation.

The new SEC rules follow in the wake of stricter sustainability reporting requirements issued by the European Commission.

Beginning in 2024, all listed companies in the EU will be required to adhere to more meticulous disclosure standards.

Yet while the EU and the US move toward comprehensive global ESG metrics, complete with strengthened impact-driven enforcement mechanisms, a full-spectrum approach to ESG has yet to be proposed by a regional body such as the African Union.

This is lamentable, because ESG investing is only getting bigger, and failing to engage risks a political and financial shutout that African countries can ill afford.

By 2026, ESG will account for more than one-fifth of all assets under management worldwide.

Even the 2022 Report on US Sustainable Investing Trends, applying its own revised methodology, indicates that one out of every eight dollars of the $66.6 trillion in US assets under management is already allocated to sustainable investment.

Leading the movement are major institutional investors, 60 percent of whom report higher performance yields for ESG investments than for non-ESG equivalents.

Nine out of 10 asset managers in a recent PwC survey saw value in integrating ESG into their investment strategies; for three-quarters of them, applying an ESG lens to investment decisions has become central to their fiduciary duties.

The top ESG priority for sustainability-minded asset managers and investors is reducing carbon emissions.

Other priorities include avoiding investments related to the military, weapons, or tobacco; divesting from fossil fuels; avoiding business in high-conflict risk countries; improving board performance; and supporting sustainable natural resource management.

Thankfully, governments are stepping up. Nigeria and South Africa are in the lead, each with a burgeoning ecosystem of environmental disclosure regulations, social impact guidelines, corporate governance codes, and an increasingly ESG-oriented business culture, driven by rising public demand for accountability and enforcement. Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, and other African countries are following suit.

The challenge now for them – as for governments and businesses everywhere – is to deepen the granularity and measurability of those ESG ecosystems, based on the needs and priorities of African stakeholders.

As the metrics grow more robust and the world converges toward universal standards, African businesses, governments, and regional organisations must weigh in to ensure that those standards serve African interests.

A good place to start is moving from a compliance approach to one of impact, exploring where sustainability standards and enforcement can be tightened: where a recommended voluntary disclosure should be made mandatory, or a ‘comply or explain’ standard toughened into ‘comply or else’.

Evidence is mounting that ESG sceptics and laggards are on the wrong side of history. There is no reason for African leaders to be among them.

View Details

By Mark Hillsdon; reuters.com

Published January 19, 2023

Sandwiched between the reporting behemoths of environment and governance, the social pillar of an organisation’s ESG strategy has always proved something of an enigma. Important yes, but what does it actually stand for, and how can companies demonstrate they are making measurable progress towards social goals?

But amid greater scrutiny of the claims they make, and the fear of being smeared by greenwash, companies are looking for new ways to back up their statements around social progress with hard, quantifiable evidence.

“Grey and murky,” is how Justin van Fleet , executive director of the Global Business Coalition for Education, describes the social element of ESG. But he believes that greater investment in education can finally bring some clarity.

A report last year, Unlocking Potential and Performance: Recognizing Education’s Position at the Core of ESG received the backing of a raft of major companies, including American Express, beauty brand Estee Lauder and Apple. It presents a new approach to corporate investment in education by offering a blueprint that can bring benefits for companies and investors through a stronger intersection of education and ESG, from driving economic growth to curbing climate change.

While environmental progress can be measured through solid metrics around emissions and waste, and governance is dealt with in the boardroom, it’s easy for a company to stall when it comes to the social pillar. They are often left casting around for success stories, pulling together details about charitable work or employee volunteering; short-term contributions where nothing really adds ups, says van Fleet.

“There are no metrics around how they (businesses) are making a systemic contribution to society,” he continues. “We think you can add some rigour to that, and use education as the key social issue to underpin the S, which would help drive broader ESG priorities.”

Directly linking education and ESG would produce more definitive methods for measuring social progress he says, and in turn provide more depth for those looking to evaluate corporate ESG efforts, with appropriate metrics to ensure investments have the intended impacts.

According to the Global Business Coalition for Education a quarter of a billion young people are out of school and another 600 million are in school, but barely learning the basics, undermining efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4, quality and inclusive education for all.

William Emtage is an associate director of sustainable business and ESG at RPS Consulting. He agrees that quantifying social progress can be hard, leading to difficulties that may even dissuade businesses from exploring that part of their ESG strategy. “If you can’t show that you’re making a clear impact, you’re then open to the accusation of making claims that can’t really be defended,” he says.

However, things are changing, and consultancies are receiving more queries from businesses about how they both target social progress and measure it. Educational attainment, he explains, along with other socio-economic indicators such as income inequality, unemployment rates and home ownership, offer new ways for organisations to measure social impact.

The concept of investing in education has its roots in altruism and philanthropy, he says, but “the investment in education that drives socio-economic outcomes is being done because it also has reflective advantage and benefits for business itself. The better you can educate your workforce... the more productive and innovative they are likely to be.”

Estee Lauder has long recognised the value of education, using it as a lever to drive progress on ESG goals around equity and diversity. “We don’t think of it as philanthropy. This is citizenship,” says Sara Moss, vice chair at the company. "We see education as a clear business imperative, as well as a moral imperative.”

The business has a workforce that is 84% female, and as a result has focussed much of its social impact activity on the education of girls and women, with the Estée Lauder Charitable Foundation investing nearly $25 million since 2016 in a variety of programmes.

These include the Open Doors Women’s Leadership Programme, a collaborative learning initiative that is helping mid-career women advance in the business across 15 countries. The company is also working with author and activist Amanda Gorman (who delivered her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration) on its Writing Change programme, which is advancing literacy as a pathway to equality for American women.

Results are assiduously tracked, says Moss, from the progress of young girls taking part in the company’s inner city coding courses, to the career destination of black women who take part in the company’s professional development programme, From Every Chair.

Education can also get to the nub of another huge issue for business: the search for talent. One study of 20 economies by Korn Ferry found that more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled by 2030 because there aren’t enough skilled people to take them. Yet for many businesses this is yet to register as a material issue. Investing in education can address this risk, create a talent pool for the future and at the same offer a strong societal impact that can be measured.

Estee Lauder is also involved in several global programmes, including a partnership with the Indian activist and Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi. The project protects children from labour exploitation in mica mines by providing them with local educational opportunities. Mica is a key ingredient for many makeup products.

The positive effect that investing in education can have on ending child labour in the supply chain is likely to resonate with many organisations, says van Fleet. Just one year of early childhood education can dramatically increase the chance of a child moving into primary school rather than child labour, he adds. By mixing support for schools with incentives for the families that ensure children attend, such as food or money, companies can create social impact that again can be measured and recorded.

So, what needs to happen to push education into the ESG mainstream? While it is important to avoid creating a box-ticking exercise, says van Fleet, companies need clear and consistent metrics to be able to measure education’s impact on their ESG priorities. This would support more consistent reporting and more complete data and risk analysis for investors.

He wants to see consultants, businesses and the ratings agencies coming together to map out solutions and set new standards. There needs to be incentives too, he says, such as education bonds, which would operate like green bonds and offer the opportunity to invest in SDG 4.

For Emtage, the next step is to capture this value. “By forging the link between social value and business value, you create something which is scalable and likely to attract repeat investment, and that's really the key,” he says.

View Details

By frontpageafricaonline.com

Published January 17, 2023

Villagers in a township in Sinoe County’s Kpayan District last week blocked the entrance of a company mining sand in that area, claiming not to have taken part in a memorandum of understanding with their community.

The protestors, some dressed in warlike traditional outfits, and set up roadblocks, chanted battle cries in the Du-Wolee township, demanding their concerns about jobs and other benefits be addressed.

“We are stopping them because there is no understanding between them and us,” said Daddy Nyanswah, the spokesperson for the protestors, in a town hall meeting. “The MoU they even signed, community people don’t get one. It’s between [them] and the Commissioner.

“They have been for over four months now, and calling them to meet they will not come so for their own bogus MoU they agree they have,” Nyanswah added.

“They told the community that before the operation we will come to you people and employ 25 persons for the first phase. Today they’re doing their own thing they started the operation,” a furious Nyanswah said.

Darius Nagbe, the Commissioner of Du-Wolee township denied the villages did not participate in the signing of the agreement, dubbing Nyanswah and other protestors “detractors.”

“That information is far from the truth, it’s from the belly of the devil,” Nagbe told The DayLight in an interview in Blue Barracks, where the protest was taking place. “Everybody came from all angles, they all assembled here and the MoU was signed.”

Nagbe’s comments were backed by Lawrence Kwame Frank, an interpreter with the Chinese-Liberian-owned. DayLight has requested a copy of the agreement.

Nagbe’s mobile phone shows people of the township signing a document, with officials of the county, including Nagbe.

Glorious Mining Company Inc. has a five-year semi-industrial scale license to mine sand on 25 acres on Du-Wolee’s beachfront. This reporter visited the firm’s mine and witnessed Liberian and Asian workers erecting camp houses and setting up equipment. Huge sandbars could be seen at a number of locations, an indication mining was taking place.

It was unclear whether the company was mining sand or zircon sand, a mineral used in the electronics and ceramics industries. Its equipment looks like those of a zircon-sand mining operation, while its license says sand.

The license also shows that the company was only awarded the rights to mine in that area on 21st December, just under two weeks before the protest. However, the company had been working there six months earlier, according to residents and Frank.

Frank said the Glorious was only testing its equipment and would begin actual employment soon as it promised in the MoU.

“The employment we talking about I am working after the workers’ employment,” Frank said as two Chinese men by his side. “Employment is a process. If I prepare I have to send it to labor they will see it before I print it out. I have more than 200 employment forms in my house.

“We been here for six months, we just building our residence, we will not be working here and we are in Greenville. So building our residence and the equipment we will be using to do the work,” he added.

News of the protest reached the police in Greenville, Sinoe’s capital less than one kilometer away. The police then brokered a peace talk between the protestors and the company, ending the protest.

“We are here for peace,” said Charles Daniel Nyegbah, a traditional leader, dressed in palm leaves and grass and posted at the barricade. “I am here for peace am not here for bloodshed.”

View Details

By Kenza Bryan and Harry Dempsey; financialpost.com

Published January 9, 2023

Tainted by decades of environmental disasters, shattered communities and ravenous water consumption, mining companies — including those that dig up battery metals — are not traditional darlings of the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) crowd.

Veteran mining executive Sir Mick Davis — who led the resources company Xstrata PLC until its merger with Glencore PLC in 2013 — knows this all too well. Now running Vision Blue Resources Ltd., a fund focused on clean-energy-related mineral and metal companies, he’s looking to ride a new wave in the sector as it seeks to up its game on sustainability while meeting huge demand for battery metals.

For decades, Davis said miners had sought a “social licence to operate” by cultivating relationships with communities and governments. Now, he said, they need to address customer and investor concerns about responsible practices in order to obtain a “social licence to market.”

Davis’s words reflect a wider shift in the resources sector, as investors seek to profit from demand for commodities used in the clean-tech sector, while minimizing exposure to environmental or human rights problems.

Rethinking natural resource sustainabilitySo far, the pressure on this front has come largely from electric carmakers led by Tesla Inc. They’ve been demanding evermore supply chain traceability to root out cobalt linked to child labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo, lithium linked to droughts in Chile or nickel extracted at the expense of Indonesia’s tropical forests.

Institutional investors have perked up to these issues, too. In recent months, S&P Global Ratings has fielded “increasing interest” from natural resource investors in sustainability-focused risk analysis of mining companies, Lynn Maxwell, who leads its commercial operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said.

Mining-sector executives often complain that climate campaigners tend to lump them in the same bucket as oil and gas companies. Jamie Strauss, chief executive of London-based Digbee Ltd., a specialized ESG disclosure platform for the mining sector, said this sentiment seeped into the investment community too.

“It’s a re-education frankly. I think the world has become disconnected from where a lot of these products come from,” he said. “We’re not going to get these battery metals if we don’t have mining.”

Digbee’s reports help private-equity groups such as Tembo Capital Management Ltd., Arch Emerging Markets Partners Ltd. and Orion Resource Partners (USA) LP decide whether to invest, he said. So far, it has assessed 25 individual mining projects and plans to have covered 40 by the end of March using dozens of industry disclosure standards for gold, copper, graphite, magnesium, nickel and even metallurgical coal.

The company provides recommendations that managers can use to improve a mine’s sustainability credentials, and gives what it says is a more forward-looking view of each project than the algorithms used by major ESG rating agencies to look at companies as a whole.

The world has become disconnected from where a lot of these products come from

JAMIE STRAUSS

Still, Strauss said, high-profile disasters have been a “blemish” on an industry now focused on causing “zero harm” (many in the industry say “minimizing harm” is a more realistic goal).

Globally, at least 28 thematic funds focus exclusively on battery technologies and metals, including 13 created in the past year, according to Morningstar Inc. data. Sustainability-focused equity funds are already a way of gaining exposure to the sector (in Europe more than 100 of these have at least five-per-cent exposure to the mining and metals sector).

Investors are trying to gain exposure to battery metal prices without the risk attached to individual mining projects. Element ETFs LLC, a natural resources-focused asset manager, launched an exchange-traded fund ETF with US$5 million seed funding tied to futures contracts for copper, lithium, nickel and cobalt in December.

But the nascent battery metal markets remain too illiquid for most big fund managers. And if they prove leery of the mining companies themselves, that could spell trouble for a sector that needs to spend hundreds of billions to boost the supply of copper, nickel and lithium.

Each of the battery metals presents unique sustainability challenges.

For example, a large proportion of the world’s lithium comes from mineral-rich brines in South America. Over decades, freshwater flows from the Andes into basins beneath salt flats, leaching lithium from surrounding rocks. Mining companies evaporate the brines to extract lithium, something that has been depleting local water supplies, according to some communities in Chile’s Atacama region.

Chilean mining leader Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile has contested those claims, but it has been rushing to strengthen its sustainability credentials. Last year, it promised a US$1.5-billion overhaul of its practices, which would enable it to halve its extraction of brine by 2030 while still boosting output.

But the controversy over water has added to the incentives to invest in production in the U.S., which could lead to more localized processes and lower transport-related emissions. In June, when President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act was still being debated, the world’s largest lithium producer by market capitalization, Albemarle Corp. said it planned to build a plant near its mine in North Carolina capable of processing 100,000 tonnes of lithium chemicals annually.

Similar initiatives in nickel, however, could be tricky. The pace of Chinese investment in Indonesian nickel reserves, which also rely on coal power for extraction and processing, is so overwhelming that projects with potentially lower emissions elsewhere could struggle to be economic, analysts said.

Across the industry, measures to reduce the carbon intensity of operations, and to make them safer and less water hungry, could ease tensions with local communities and activists, while signalling to investors that miners are starting to take ESG seriously.

But mining will remain a relatively polluting and carbon-intensive business for the foreseeable future. The rush to expand production of minerals for EVs and renewable energy plants means “increasing emissions in one sector to reduce emissions in another sector,” Seth Goldstein, chair of the electric vehicle committee at Morningstar, said. “It’s a net benefit but still a risk.”

View Details

By Linda Givetash; voanews.com

Published December 13, 2022

A South African researcher has developed a way to remove contaminants from water used in mining that could help clean up the dirty industry. The award-winning ion exchange method not only cleans the water but captures polluting metals that can then be re-purposed.

At a Johannesburg laboratory, researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand have developed a way to clean acid mine drainage (AMD).

AMD is the runoff of pollutants like sulfuric acid and heavy metals that secrete into waterways, affecting wildlife and rural mining communities.

AMD is often found at gold and coal mines, which are plentiful in South Africa.

Tamlyn Naidu is a post-doctoral research fellow involved in the project.

“What we wanted to do is minimize environmental impact for a lot of these communities that are afflicted by AMD. They have been born into mining communities, they work in mining communities, they're either scared to report it or to complain about it, because this is their livelihood,” she said.

The ion exchange filtration system that Naidu and her colleagues have developed uses countless polystyrene beads, each the size of a pinhead, which the water passes through.

Unlike a coffee filter, which physically blocks coffee grounds from passing through with water, the beads grab the contaminants in the water chemically.

The passing water, which can be scaled up to clean 1,000 liters an hour, then comes out clear.

“This project though, does something extra. It also wants to extract from the water valuable materials. So what has been identified in some of these streams, especially coal mining streams, is that the acid that's produced from the mine waters actually dissolves out some rare earth metals,” says Ed Hardwick, the owner of Cwenga Technologies, which is a partner in the research.

Rare earth metals are in huge demand globally because they can be used in new technology like electric vehicles. Being able to extract them adds a financial incentive to cleaning up AMD.

Naidu said she hopes this can empower communities by monetizing the extracted materials from the AMD.

“Ultimately, from this project, we want community members to be involved in something that's easy for them to operate, that they can extract value from and start, you know, seeing the value that companies have been taking onto the land and taken away from them. And yeah, I guess adding to their quality of life,” she says.

A method to clean up AMD that can be monetized would be good news for the government and communities that are now burdened with the costly task.

“If this was going to be an incentive, it should be on the incentive of the state and that any monies that are obtained from the separation of those minerals that can be repurposed, that can be used, is then fed back into one rehabilitation, but also two, into creating sustainable economies for the communities that are impacted,” says Tarisai Mugunyani, an attorney with the Center for Environmental Rights in Johannesburg.

Researchers say they are hopeful their filtration system, which can be adapted to clean the unique chemistry of AMD at any site, will soon be adopted widely.

It has already gained international attention with Naidu taking the first prize for emerging talents breakthroughs at the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin last month.

Naidu said several companies in mining and technology sectors have contacted her about becoming involved.

View Details

By Carolyn Berkowitz, Kari Niedfeldt-Thomas, Diane Quest; hbr.org

Published December 19, 2022

2023 will be a test of corporate America — the year we find out if corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitments and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles are deeply ingrained values or in fact only hobbies to be enjoyed in economic fair weather.

As members of three organizations who work directly with thousands of leaders engaged in corporate social impact across every sector and region, we urge you, corporate executives, not to step back from the gains you’ve made in community and global investment and employee engagement as we near a recession. It’s taken an abundance of corporate commitment, years of dedication and investment, to see the benefits of your leadership.

With the likelihood of recession in 2023 increasing every day, corporate leaders are being tasked with navigating these turbulent times, and cost-cutting is a conventional strategy to deploy. Unfortunately, history shows that CSR, ESG, and purpose initiatives are typically first on the list to freeze or underfund during recessionary times. This test comes at a time when CEOs have made significant strides in tying ESG to profitability, with 70% of U.S. CEOs acknowledging that ESG improves financial performance, up from 37% just last year, per a recent KPMG survey. Yet 59% of CEOs said they planned to pause or reconsider their ESG efforts.

This is a mistake. Here are four reasons why prioritizing an investment in corporate citizenship is critical to the long-term success of profitable enterprises.

1. Your workforce is making employment decisions based on corporate purpose commitments and actions.Recruiting and retaining talent continues to be a challenge in every sector, despite the weakening economy. While job security and fair wages will be top of mind during an economic downturn, employee engagement and corporate commitment to social impact, driven largely by CSR teams, remain critical. Edelman’s special report “Trust in the Workplace” found that seven out of 10 employees wanted their job to bring societal impact, calling it a strong expectation or deal breaker when considering a job. Your employees will leave to find a purpose-driven employer if your company is not one.

2. Your customers make purchase decisions based on corporate purpose commitments and actions.Consumers are even more discerning during increased times of uncertainty, which makes reputation and transparency key. While consumers are more attuned to rising prices, the differentiator will be brands that uphold their commitments to society through good times and bad. In fact, according to the 2021 Porter Novelli Purpose Premium Index (PPI), “73% of consumers say [that] to win their support, companies must show how they are supporting communities and the environment.”

3. Your investors make decisions based on corporate purpose and actions.One of the core strategies of ESG investing is risk mitigation. ESG-related issues are material and can cause financial or reputational damage. Especially during volatile periods in the market, investors want to know that these social risks are being tracked and managed at the highest levels in the company. In March 2022, Merrill Lynch issued a report to its investors on the importance of the S in ESG, in which it asserted that because social factors underpin the key inputs to economic growth, managing and monitoring social indicators has never been as important as it is today.

4. Your company’s reputation is intrinsically linked to corporate purpose and actions.The Edelman Trust Barometer shows that trust in companies is slipping; all it takes is one poor choice to flip the perception of a company to disdain. Community needs will only increase during economic downturns, including basic needs such as shelter, food, and education. The continued support corporations provide to nonprofits through financial investment, employee volunteerism, product donation, and nonprofit board service — the S in ESG — is critical in maintaining strong relationships with your key stakeholders. Your corporate responsibility team is your offense and defense for ensuring your reputation remains strong.

Your “why” doesn’t change when things become less comfortable. In fact, it gets more important. So, where do you start?

You start from the inside out, by reasserting — and following through on — your commitments to corporate social impact. As leaders, understand what is required to uphold your commitments, maintain your company’s reputation, and transparently follow up on the impacts. Then, support your corporate social responsibility functions and leaders through social investment for the long-term. Leading companies invest 1% of pre-tax profits in society, with the top-quartile investing 2.3%. What’s your number?

Systemic change requires a long-term view of where a company and society is headed. If corporate leaders commit to serving communities of color, investing in their own CSR teams, and providing meaningful ways to engage their employees in their commitment to purpose, we can continue to build momentum addressing our most challenging societal issues and drive meaningful and lasting change.

Companies have established themselves as an important member of the community, and those that are most successful have incorporated social innovation into their business strategies. If companies cut their societal investment, employee volunteer programs, and other citizenship strategies now, companies and society at large will emerge from a recession with more severe challenges than we have today.

The choice is clear. Don’t default to a short-sighted strategy of cost-cutting. Strengthen your commitment to corporate purpose and emerge from the looming recession, hand in hand with your stakeholders, positioned for long-term success.

• Carolyn Berkowitz is the President & CEO of the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals.
• Kari Niedfeldt-Thomas is Managing Director at Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP).
• Diane Quest is Interim President & CEO at Points of Light.

View Details

By Elena Ilkova;businesslive.co.za

Published November 25, 2022

Investors are starting to recognise the link between environmental and social outcomes, especially in developing marketsEnvironmental, social & governance (ESG) have become well-established themes in investing, but the main focus has been strongly on the environmental factor.

Environmental concerns have been reinforced as the world still deals with the upheaval in energy markets caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

While addressing environmental concerns is critical in the long run for the world, in the here and now Africa has a broad spectrum of pressing social challenges that must also be addressed. Many investors are starting to recognise the link between environmental and social outcomes, especially in developing markets, and appreciate the complex ways in which tracked indicators can interconnect and influence each other.

One challenge in Africa is that a significant proportion of economic activity involves fossil fuel production or carbon- and water-intensive production, such as mining, agriculture and heavy industry. Accelerated development of the African sustainable financing market is critical in managing the trade-offs between short-term growth and social stability imperatives versus long-term environmental protection. Capital allocation based on integrating ESG considerations into the investment decision-making process can be the balancing force.

Sustainability in Africa: social, with an environmental add-on

In developing and frontier markets, especially in Africa, government commitments to achieve carbon neutrality (net zero) are intrinsically linked to broader socioeconomic development aspirations. However, while the ultimate objectives are the same, the starting points for transition journeys are quite different, since they are determined not only by the structure of each economy but the policy priorities of governments. Examining the approaches taken by two of the continent’s biggest economies — SA and Nigeria — highlights this difference.

SA’s initial focus is on the facilitation of a just and equitable transition towards a low-emissions and climate-resilient economy. A five-year draft investment plan has key proposals focusing on repurposing old coal power stations; grid strengthening; reorienting the local auto industry to the production of electric vehicles; and support for the development of a green hydrogen industry.

In Nigeria, the 2060 Energy Transition Plan (ETP) has a strong emphasis on reducing energy poverty, critical not only for development but for industrialisation and economic growth (close to 60% of the population in Nigeria has access to electricity, compared with 85% in SA). The five critical energy sectors on which the ETP focuses on are power, clean cooking, oil and gas, transport and industry.

Taking advantage of ESG investment opportunities in Africa requires a more comprehensive approach than concentrating on the climate change component alone. The need to reduce carbon emissions has focused much of the developed world’s attention on green issues, and incorporating environmental considerations into a company’s business strategy, operations and investors’ decision-making has become essential. However, in an African context environmental considerations worsen the social impact and need to be embedded in governance structures.

Beyond traditional social considerations

The Covid-19 pandemic shifted global attention to the social component of ESG. In most advanced economies the disruption of economic activity drew attention to business practices predominantly related to the management of human capital. Social issues such as employee benefits, paid sick and family responsibility leave, pay reductions and retrenchment practices became key investor concerns.

In contrast, in Africa food security was the top social concern. The loss of the opportunity to earn income, combined with typically low savings rates, exposed the fragility of the existing socioeconomic systems. The solution is rapid economic development and industrialisation, which require energy, but the challenge is to enable growth while keeping the carbon footprint low.

Green finance can help facilitate the production of clean energy, but considering the social impact such investments have a direct social component embedded, which is potentially a natural extension in many green projects. For investors in Africa, projects that fall into green investment categories such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable water management, sustainable land use, clean transport and pollution prevention and control, also frequently qualify under the eligible social investment categories such as affordable basic infrastructure, access to essential services, socioeconomic advancement and empowerment, employment generation, and food security and sustainable food systems.

Sustainable finance: investment opportunities with derisking measures

A combination of environmental and social considerations is often integral to the success of business ventures in African countries and can help identify more resilient and profitable investment opportunities. An intentional focus on social factors is also better risk management. Effective and consistent integration of social criteria in investment processes helps derisk investments by acknowledging that the challenges in Africa are both climate change and inequality. In this context, the financial materiality of social performance can be just as critical as the environmental performance.

In addition, understanding and addressing the social issues that affect corporate supply chains protects against potential reputational risks when dealing with a variety of issues. Identifying the specific social issues that are material to the geography or jurisdiction in which a company operates is a starting point, and further analysis of sectors or industries allows for early identification of issues that can become material in time. The materiality of social risks differs between countries and industries, which adds a layer of complexity to financial analysis, but the structured approach associated with explicitly targeting social outcomes helps reduce the complexity. Failure to consider the social dimension in supply chains can present significant risk to operations as in many cases a social compact with local communities is necessary to ensure stability of operations.

In the context of African economies, assessing social performance and integrating social criteria into investment decisions allows investors to play a part in creating more resilient and equitable economies. The focus on sustainability is a strategy that has the potential to enhance returns and reduce risk in investors’ total portfolio — both in public and private markets as well as in equity and debt.

Ilkova is research analyst at Rand Merchant Bank.

View Details

By Katie Mehnert and Hillary Holmes;nasdaq.com

Published December 8, 2022

ESG is playing a larger role than ever in investors’ portfolios. A new survey from PwC finds that certain environmental, social and governance issues are now among investors’ top 5 concerns, with 49% citing effective corporate governance and 44% citing the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, found that “more than half of investors (53%) regard climate change as the most important factor affecting their investment decisions, up from 47% last year.”

Still, new questions and concerns are being raised. CNBC reported that there's an “ESG backlash” inside companies, with executives questioning “the value of ESG metrics” and expressing concerns about overregulation. Meanwhile, environmental activists have their own concerns, worrying that counting on the private sector will lead to failure. As two professors explained in the Harvard Business Review, ESG investing “will not tackle our generation’s urgent environmental and social challenges.”

The head of the U.N. Global Compact, which coined the term ESG in 2005, recently wrote in Fortune that “critics have a point.” The rise of ESG is not creating the needed movement toward key goals such as tackling “runaway climate change” and the “widening social and economic inequalities,” Sanda Ojiambo wrote. But, she added, “the core reasoning behind the interconnectedness of ESG remains sound,” and it is succeeding on key measures.

In this landscape, what should investors expect for ESG in 2023? We track these issues closely, in the energy sector and beyond. The ALLY Energy ESG Council recently gathered a team of experts to get their views as well.

Here are a few of our predictions.

Crucial to the workforce

ESG is here to stay. To most people, it’s a sensible and important part of business. It’s also vital for the most important part of running a successful business: attracting talent.

Stephanie Weiler, who oversees ESG for Alvarez & Marsal, said in our council event that today’s employees want to work for companies with strong ESG policies. Many value “corporate purpose over salary,” and want to know that they’re contributing positively not only to their company, but also to “broader societal goals.”

The DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) part of ESG has been facing some backlash as well. Some people are upset that these efforts are not creating adequate change, while others, especially some white men, feel disadvantaged by these efforts. Companies need to navigate these challenges carefully and fairly. When they do so, they are rewarded by top performers of all backgrounds through attraction and retention, lifting the bottom line and share values.

Increasing role in finance

In just a few years, ESG assets have grown to be worth trillions of dollars. Bloomberg reports that they could hit a massive $53 trillion by 2025. Green bonds, social bonds, sustainability-linked loans and related products provide excellent ways for companies to put their money where their mouth is, while accessing a more diverse investor base and even less expensive capital.

For investors, this means that having ESG in your portfolio will continue to pay off. As McKinsey reported, of 2,000 studies, about 70% found a positive relationship between ESG scores and financial returns.

A recent study from Stanford found that younger investors overwhelmingly describe themselves as very concerned about environmental issues. Each year these younger generations become a larger portion of the investor community.

Regulation brings litigation

While the SEC has recently been less bullish on the timing for its proposed climate disclosure rules, we can reasonably expect some to be adopted in 2023, adding to companies’ regulatory burden and G&A (general and administrative) costs.

Increased disclosures also make companies more susceptible to accusations of false or misleading statements. We are likely to see litigation from shareholders, consumers and government agencies such as the FTC and SEC, which can bring costs and tarnished reputations.

A time of opportunity

The year ahead also offers a great chance to build consensus around ESG issues. The mix of failures and successes at the recent COP27 summit is leading more people to want to take environmental action in the private sector. Rising tensions in Russia and elsewhere have spotlighted the need for security, reliability, and sustainability everywhere. Meanwhile, results of the Inflation Reduction Act will be seen in the United States. All these factors can help accelerate the transition to renewable energy, and build a more equitable workforce.

With no major U.S. elections in the year ahead, there's opportunity for more coming together across party lines to address important issues. And as more countries recover from the pandemic, there's more opportunity for global conversations on ESG matters. If leaders take these opportunities, we can make great headway in 2023.

Katie Mehnert is founder and CEO of ALLY Energy. Hillary Holmes is co-chair of the capital markets practice group at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

View Details

By Nicolas Florquin, Alaa Tartir, Anthony Obayi Onyishi; theconversation.com

Published December 4, 2022

In January 2022, in a bid to stem a tide of violent attacks and kidnappings in north-western Nigeria, the government labelled the armed groups involved in the violence “terrorists”.

The relationship between these groups and the internationally designated terrorist groups Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province in north-eastern Nigeria was unclear.

But the decision illustrated growing concern that violent extremism might spread to the country’s north-west. It also raised questions about the types of measures that were needed to prevent escalation of violence.

The Small Arms Survey and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recently launched a new report assessing the threat of violent extremism in this border region, as well as in four other border areas in northern Chad, southern Libya, north-eastern Niger, and western Sudan.

We contributed to the report, which builds on the UNDP’s 2017 Journey to Extremism in Africa study. That study found that individuals raised in marginalised borderlands can be especially vulnerable to recruitment by violent extremist groups. Hence the focus on border regions and prevention in the new report.

The Small Arms Survey is an internationally funded programme. It has an extensive track record in research on weapons and armed actors in Nigeria, and the broader West Africa and Sahel region.

Marginalised border communities are also seen as vulnerable to the proliferation of illicit small arms.

By relying on general population surveys, the report shows how local societies are, or could be affected by violent extremism. It aims to inform policy making and programming for prevention.

The studyThe study surveyed people’s perceptions of drivers (or root factors), actors and values associated with violent extremism. It is based on 6,852 interviews between December 2020 and July 2021, including 1,643 in north-western Nigeria.

The surveyed regions were not considered to be hotspots of violent extremism. We selected them due to concerns that terrorist organisations operating nearby might eventually expand their activities to these areas.

The study included north-western Nigeria because of the conflict there between Fulani herders and Hausa farmers over pastoral and agricultural resources, as well as competition over emerging mining opportunities.

It was also important to take into account the transnational dimension of conflict drivers. Government policies on border management, such as permissive immigration policies, might be relevant.

A range of armed groups have perpetrated violence in north-western Nigeria. Among them are vigilantes, criminal gangs, herder-allied groups and jihadists. Local “bandits” also appear to be mingling with violent extremist groups.

Armed groups in the region have used locally manufactured firearms and factory-produced small arms. The weapons reportedly come from other countries in the region and from within Nigeria.

Drivers of violent extremismThe seven drivers of conflict we focused on were:

• hardship and deprivation
• lack of adequate security and justice
• limited access to basic services
• the growing importance of ethnic or religious identities
• chronic instability and insecurity
• blocked political participation and the influence of non-state armed groups
• the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

Reducing vulnerability to violent extremism will require putting each region’s most relevant needs and grievances first.

The situation in north-western NigeriaOverall, north-western Nigeria appeared less exposed to strong religious and ethnic identities, and to poverty and deprivation than the other four case studies.

On the other hand, the Nigerian respondents reported higher than average levels of disgruntlement with the government, and north-western Nigeria also stood out as vulnerable to discrimination and marginalisation along identity lines. Interestingly, dissatisfaction with security forces was not as strong as with the government. But perceived insecurity was the highest in north-western Nigeria.

Respondents felt strongly that women and youth were under-represented in leadership, community and political roles. The region also reported the study’s highest levels of victimisation to gender-based violence — by a significant margin.

The region’s respondents reported the highest levels of proliferation of small arms. They reported flows of small arms with other regions of the country and other countries in the region. They were particular about Niger, Chad, Libya and Mali.

A significant 19% of respondents in all regions reported being aware of recruitment by local or foreign armed groups in their communities. The rate in north-western Nigeria was the highest at 35%. This shows the border region’s particular exposure to the activities of non-state armed groups.

Interviewees in all regions said armed groups recruited both men and boys, and women and girls.

Armed groups were not only seen as a threat. In some instances their role was perceived as positive. For example, some respondents noted that armed groups offered protection, owned businesses, and provided cash income.

Respondents also felt more secure where security providers were a mix of national and local actors, including non-state actors.

What must be donePolicies and responses need to take into account these complex dynamics. Interventions that focus purely on security could have a negative impact on local economies and informal trade flows.

The report’s findings can be challenging to interpret. This is because we do not have a baseline to compare them to. But the study shows that extreme views are held by about 3% of the population in the five regions surveyed.

If measures don’t address the specific needs, vulnerabilities and grudges of border communities, radical views could well gain more ground and translate into increased violence.

Implementing timely and context-specific preventive measures will be critical for reducing the risk of violent extremism in these border regions.

Such measures should form part of broader regional development and stabilisation efforts, to prevent extremist groups from taking advantage of a vacuum or lack of state services.

They may also involve community-led engagement and dialogue to address social cohesion challenges. Interventions in areas that are highly dependent on cross-border trade will be essential, yet particularly challenging.

The affected population and their perceptions should be at the centre of interventions.

Acknowledgement: The report discussed in this article is a joint publication of the Small Arms Survey and the UNDP’s Regional Prevention of Violent Extremism Project for Africa - which is a joint initiative of the UNDP Regional Bureaus of Africa and the Arab States. It benefited from the support of the governments of the Netherlands and Sweden. In addition to the authors, Darine Atwa, SANA project assistant, and Gergely Hideg, survey specialist, both at the Small Arms Survey, contributed to the writing of this article.

View Details

In this episode I have the pleasure to be speaking to Sabrina Segal. We discuss risk assessments and Sabrina shares an alternative approach to the risk register. Sabrina is a licensed US attorney, certified fraud examiner and government specialist with almost 20 years of experience working in the risk, ethics and integrity field. Her focus is on the third sector and she has worked at every level from direct implementation of humanitarian activities in the field to the development of organizational risk and compliance environments. And she's also the host of the Tolerable Risk Podcast, which focuses on threats and opportunities in the third sector.

View Details

Conflict and insecurity are prevalent in northern Kenya. In recent weeks, cases of bandit attacks in the region have left villages terrorised and led to several deaths. In October 2022, the government launched a multi-agency security operation aimed at curbing further attacks.

View Details

Terrorist and violent extremist groups aggravate instability and human suffering.  And they can plunge a country emerging from war back into the depths of conflict.  Climate disruptions make matters worse, inducing intercommunal tensions and food insecurity that are exploited by terrorists and other criminal groups.  And digital tools make spreading hate and disinformation easier than ever.

View Details

Climate change is commonly framed as a risk multiplier that worsens conditions known to increase conflict risk, such as poverty and inequality.

Research shows that adverse climate conditions may lead to more support for violence. These conditions can also contribute to escalating or prolonging conflict. This is particularly the case in places marked by climate-sensitive economic activities, political marginalisation and a history of violence.

View Details

Sharing similar objectives and collaborating in the same delivery chains requires common risk management approaches

Humanitarian action is primarily intended ‘to save lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity during and in the aftermath of crises.’ However, when looking at the contexts where the 274m people most urgently in need of assistance are located, it becomes clear that providing this assistance is an inherently risky undertaking.

View Details

The United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) has said Boko Haram and Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) terrorists are planning to abduct humanitarian workers in Borno.

View Details

Attacks against aid workers were more lethal in 2021 despite there being fewer major incidents relative to the two previous years. The 267 reported attacks resulted in 203 aid workers seriously injured, 117 kidnapped, and 140 killed—the most fatalities recorded since 2013.

View Details

Global mining and metals executives rank environment, social and governance (ESG), geopolitics and climate change as the top three risks facing their business over the next 12 months, a survey by consultancy EY has found.

View Details

The environmental, social, and governance framework was created with two objectives: to help companies manage environmental and social risks — do no harm — and incentivize them to contribute greater social and environmental impacts — do good. To date, it has been used as a risk management tool at best and a compliance obligation at worst. As a result of cumbersome reporting systems and problematic applications of the framework, the very essence of ESG is at risk — and it is key that E, S, and G are not separated.

View Details

In a recent article published by the World Economic Forum, which investigated the factors shaping the future of consumption and buying decisions, it was highlighted that consumers and employees, who form part of the critical stakeholders of any organisation, especially the next generation such as Millennials and Gen Z, have increasingly different expectations for both businesses they buy from, invest in and work for.

View Details

Our guest on this episode is a veteran of the sustainability industry with a breadth of experience from retail to mining, Jack Cunningham. Together we’ll be exploring something that is both surprisingly and yet not that surprisingly misunderstood - ESG versus Sustainability. Join us as we discuss the difference and why the distinction matters.

View Details

Over the past few years there has been an expansion in the social factors considered by investors and other stakeholders. Topics such as health and safety, diversity, workers’ rights and human rights have become more central to sustainability strategies for a wide range of bond issuers from corporates to sovereigns. This is supported by a more consistent and comprehensive reporting environment, regulations and improved market standards.

View Details

The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) provides a solution to a global demand for more socially and environmentally responsible mining. IRMA offers true independent third-party verification and certification against a comprehensive standard for all mined materials that provides ‘one-stop coverage’ of the full range of issues related to the impacts of industrial-scale mines. Join us as we discuss the mining sector with Aimee Boulanger, IRMA Executive Director.

View Details

Until recently, ESG investors avoided the mining industry. Fairly or not, to many it had a reputation for environmental degradation, child labor, political corruption and neo-colonialism. Yet now, the entire energy transition depends on this industry. Without massive investments in base metals and key minerals, Europe and North America will fail to meet their carbon emissions targets and face a new form of energy insecurity.

View Details

ENVIRONMENTAL, social and governance concerns (ESG) has become a handy slogan in company boardrooms and marketing departments. Critics say corporates pay mere lip service to ESG and deceive shareholders and the broader public about their green credentials – a practice called greenwashing.

View Details

The shift from linear to circular value chains has the potential to impact all aspects of mining and requires a rethink, Anglo American Platinum sustainable impact head Stephen Bullock has told a Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) webinar.

View Details

McKinsey says the turbulence surrounding the concept’s components doesn’t change the fact that it’s here to stay.

View Details

Sahelian militant Islamist groups are threatening border areas of littoral states where grievances held by pastoralist communities may provide an entry point for extremist interests.

View Details

Peatlands and rainforests in the Congo Basin protect the planet by storing carbon. Now, in a giant leap backward for the climate, they’re being auctioned off for drilling.

View Details

An explosion of violence in South Sudan is raising fears that the country’s fragile peace agreement will unravel before elections the international community hopes can be held next year. The wave of near-daily killings across this East African country is often blamed on marauding militias whose attacks threaten the 2018 truce between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar.

View Details

South Sudan’s nation building never really started. Two years into its hard-won independence, a civil war broke out in December 2013. This robbed the country of an opportunity to lay down its foundations.

View Details

Rabia Nusrat is one hardcore Program Manager in the aid and development sector. And she’s our guest on this episode. Rabia has been a driving force behind women’s empowerment projects in Afghanistan, education projects in Pakistan, peacebuilding in Sri Lanka and much, much more. Operating out of the heart of Kabul for several years and with more than 15 years in the field, Rabia has a wealth of experience. Listen as she shares on-the-ground realities of running projects in extreme environments.

View Details

With eight months remaining, the window of opportunity is closing for South Sudan to meet critical benchmarks required to complete its transition away from long-running civil conflict, the Special Representative for the country told the Security Council on Monday, pressing parties to the November 2018 peace deal, to implement their commitments in letter and spirit.

View Details

In this episode we’re exploring conflict sensitivity with leading peace and conflict advisor within the aid and development sector, Summer Brown. Join us as Summer guides us through the complexities of this hidden art and shares insight from a career forged in some truly challenging locations.

View Details

An example of what peacekeeping means to people affected by conflict comes from troubled South Sudan where a recent survey had 80% of respondents “felt safer” with United Nations (UN) peacekeepers in their country.

View Details

In this episode we discuss security risk management and duty of care within the development sector with Wayne Rautenbach the Health, Safety, Security and Wellbeing Manager for International Development at Mott MacDonald. Listen as he shares his insight into the realities and challenges facing development organisations right along the delivery pipeline from donors to subcontractors operating in extreme risk countries.

View Details

While Ukraine grabs the headlines, Ethiopia is in the midst of a civil war that has brought famine and economic crisis in its wake. As public anger grows, the conflict may be heading towards a bloody conclusion.

View Details

Against the backdrop of a deteriorating geopolitical environment – and with less than a year to go before the end of the transitional period – the preparations, conduct and aftermath of the elections in South Sudan will prove critical to the prospects for peace and stability.

View Details

UN agencies have called on the government to protect humanitarian workers and vital life-saving food commodities destined to people in dire need. The call came after a commercial convoy of 44 trucks carrying WFP food assistance came under attack from armed gunmen between Gadiang and Yuai in Jonglei State on 24 March.

View Details

Peru has declared a state of emergency near Southern Copper Corp’s Cuajone copper mine as protests have caused the Andean nation to halt 20% of its copper output.

View Details

The fragmented patchwork of different ways for companies to report and be held to account on their social and environmental performance is soon to be replaced by widely accepted and endorsed international standards for corporate sustainability.

View Details

The mining industry must work harder on implementing human rights programmes to prevent the exploitation of unhappy communities for narrow self-defeating motives, Minerals Council South Africa senior executive Tebello Chabana commented during a Human Rights Dialogue on March 17.

View Details

Ten years after the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), a new study says that most large mining companies have failed to translate promises to communities into action plans.

View Details

On Wednesday, the former head of security for a subsidiary of the Toronto-based mining company Hudbay Minerals officially pled guilty in a Guatemalan court to killing a local Indigenous community leader and paralyzing another Indigenous man.

View Details

Institutional investors worth $10.2-trillion have written to the boards of global mining companies to better understand their engagement with First Nations people, in the wake of Rio Tinto's destruction of Juukan Gorge rockshelters.

View Details

On September 8, Canadian mining company Solaris Resources Inc. issued a press release announcing the signing of an “Impacts and Benefits Agreement (“IBA”) for the Warintza Project” with the Shuar Centres of Warints and Yawi.

View Details

BULIISA, Uganda, Oct 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Two years ago, surveyors came to measure a swathe of land cutting through the Bitamale family's homestead in western Uganda.

View Details

Mining executives across the world have ranked licence to operate, high-impact risks, and productivity and rising costs as the top three risks facing their business over the next year.

View Details

Agricultural firm Kakuzi has been sued in the United Kingdom for alleged human rights abuses, exposing the company to the risk of hefty fines and reparations to the victims.

View Details

The long-awaited Second Revised Draft Treaty on Business and Human Rights was published on 6 August 2020, bringing high hopes for accountability in cases of corporate human rights abuses.

View Details

London, United Kingdom – 26 companies, business associations, and initiatives have called for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation at EU level in a joint statement released today.

View Details

Microsoft and other tech giants are seeking to dismiss a child labor lawsuit, claiming they have no influence on conditions in DRC mines.

View Details

The government of Uganda is in the final stages of developing an oil spills contingency plan, which will introduce stringent guidelines for concerned oil companies.

View Details

Eight concerns, including diversified mining and marketing company Glencore, have joined forces to transform the informal mining of cobalt for the better.

View Details

New Binding Treaty draft provides companies a glimpse into the future of legal liability for human rights abuses.

View Details

Indigenous groups in Chile’s lithium-rich Atacama salt flat, fresh off a resounding legal victory earlier this week, said on Friday they will push to see top lithium miner SQM’s environmental permits revoked and its operations shut down.

View Details

On 6 August 2020, the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) released the Second Revised Draft of the proposed binding treaty on business and human rights.

View Details

The Federal Government of Nigeria is undertaking series of reforms of the country’s Bilateral International Treaties (BIT) to attract responsible, inclusive, balanced and sustainable investments.

View Details

Three more Tanzanian victims have joined a legal claim in British courts against Barrick Gold subsidiaries for serious human rights violations at the company’s North Mara gold mine in northern Tanzania.

View Details

Angry residents in Peru’s Andean and Amazon regions have attacked three mining and oil sector firms in the last week, two of which were forced to halt operations after deadly clashes, as a second wave of COVID-19 infections hits the country.

View Details

The Global Tailings Review (GTR) on August 5 launched the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, which aims to ensure tailings dam failures are a thing of the past.

View Details

Protesters in Peru attacked a convoy of vehicles from the Las Bambas mining group, one of Peru’s largest copper producers, and set fire to some of them, underscoring tensions in the country that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

View Details

On 29 April 2020, the European Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, announced that the European Union will propose new mandatory human rights due diligence legislation in 2021.

View Details

Mining companies’ corporate social responsibility programs could yield better outcomes if they tackled “real change on the ground,” new research has found.

View Details

The number of companies within the oil and gas industry turning to power their operations using renewable energy is increasing, according to a new report issued by IHS Markit.

View Details

More than 200 000 Brazilian people and groups will next week kick off a five-billion-pound lawsuit against Anglo-Australian miner BHP in Britain over a 2015 dam failure that led to Brazil's worst environmental disaster.

View Details

President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the Ministry of Lands to intervene and resolve the lease dispute between Murang’a residents and Thika-based Del Monte Foods that owns 22,000 acres.

View Details

Renewable energy provides a key to Africa’s development. The climate benefits of using the sun and wind to produce electricity means energy for development without compounding the problem of climate change. Africa has an opportunity to largely leapfrog using fossil fuels for electricity production.

View Details

Environmental activists have sued Ghana’s government to stop a proposed mining project in a protected national forest, which they say endangers their health and well-being, amid growing calls to increase nature reserves to combat climate change.

View Details

Communities in Africa are increasingly using litigation to challenge large extractive projects that exacerbate the climate emergency and loss of biodiversity.

View Details

Over 100 Catholic leaders from around the world have released an unprecedented statement calling on the introduction of mandatory human rights due diligence.

View Details

On 7 July 2020, corporate and NGO members of the Voluntary Principles Initiative released a Joint Statement on Policing and Respect for Human Rights.

View Details

On April 20, Teck Resources Ltd. (TSX:TECK.B) released a 76-page first-quarter financial report that reported an $800 million decline in earnings compared with Q1 2019, due in large part to the impact of a global pandemic.

View Details

An OECD complaint filed by ClientEarth lawyers alleging oil giant BP misled the public in its advertising campaign would have proceeded had the company not already committed to end the ad campaign.

View Details

At least 15 people have been bludgeoned to death with stones and cement blocks, and some bodies partly burned, in an indigenous village in southern Mexico plagued by a dispute over windpower.

View Details

Hundreds of people have rallied outside Rio Tinto's Perth headquarters to protest the mining giant's destruction of a significant indigenous site in Western Australia.

View Details

There is growing momentum towards mandatory due diligence, both at EU and Member State level. On 29 April 2020, the EU Commissioner for Justice announced that the Commission commits to introducing rules for mandatory corporate environmental and human rights due diligence.

View Details

Switzerland’s Attorney General’s Office (OAG) has opened a criminal probe into commodity miner and trader Glencore over allegations it failed to have measures in place to prevent corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

View Details

Thousands of Nigerians are asking British judges to give them permission to sue Royal Dutch Shell Plc in London over environmental damage caused by oil spills 3,000 miles away in Africa.

View Details

The devastating human rights implications of the global COVID-19 pandemic have been thoroughly documented. Civil society has exposed the failure of many governments to protect their citizens and of many businesses to respect human rights in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights.

View Details

Trubshaw Cumberlege is proud to announce that Managing Director Sean Kelly took part in an informative panel discussion organised by Invest Africa Connect at Mining Indaba 2020 in Cape Town.

View Details

Trubshaw Cumberlege is proud to announce that Sean Cumberlege, a Director at Trubshaw Cumberlege, recently returned from presenting at the 62nd Annual Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute in Squaw Valley, California. Along with his co-author Dimitri Seletsky, Supervising Counsel, Global Legal Services & Support, Chevron Upstream, Sean presented on a paper entitled: Implementing Integrity: the Business Case for an Ethical Supply Chain and a Toolkit for Tempering the Links.