This page presents all relevant good practice case studies that showcase how business have addressed the Indigenous peoples dilemma. Case studies have been developed in close collaboration with a range of multi-national companies and relevant government, inter-governmental and civil society stakeholders. We also draw on public domain sources, including the UN Global Compact's own published Communications on Progress through which signatories are required to report on their performance against the Ten Principles.
The case studies explore the specific dilemmas and challenges faced by each organisation, good practice actions they have taken to resolve them and the results of such action. We reference challenges as well as achievements and invite you to submit commentary and suggestions through the Forum.
Transfield Services: Developing a specific policy on indigenous peoples - Global
Transfield Services’ ‘Indigenous Participation Strategy’ focuses on elements such as supporting meaningful cultural recognition, employment, education and training opportunities for indigenous people. Specifically, the company funds programmes geared towards increasing the understanding of its approach to indigenous affairs and seeks to ensure that a variety of stakeholders collaborate with the business to ensure that ‘mutually beneficial outcomes for indigenous communities, clients, partners and the business itself can be achieved. An Indigenous Advisory Board – established in 2006 – advises Transfield Services on engagement and provides advice regarding the implementation of policies and practices. The company has won an award from the New South Wales government in Australia for providing support for self-sufficient Aboriginal business enterprises.
Congolaise Industrielle des bois: harnessing technology for consultation purposes - Congo
Congolaise Industrielle des bois (CIB), the largest logging company in the Republic of Congo, certifies its concessions to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard. Principles 2 and 3 of the FSC certification standards necessitate that the indigenous peoples are involved with the management and decision-making processes concerning the forest and its resources. During the certification process for its Cabo concession in May 2006, it became clear that additional improvements were needed in the realm of local community engagement. Specifically, CIB had to map the traditional territories of the local communities to ascertain and concretely recognise their tenure and use rights, in addition to elucidating who to consult to establish consent, or refusal, for proposed logging activities. In response, the CIB partnered with TFT, Forest Peoples Programme, London School of Economics and technology provider Helveta to provide an icon-driven application with pictograms used to depict their activities and resources so that indigenous peoples can indicate what they view to be the risks associated with logging. The responses were then mapped via GIS to provide a specific portrayal of localised risk and the sentiments of particular affected communities.
Anglo American: enveloping indigenous peoples within SEAT - Global
Anglo American integrates indigenous peoples’ rights into its Socio-Economic Assessment Toolbox (SEAT). SEAT includes specific guidance and protocols to orient engagement as well impact assessments aimed at risk mitigation. The programme has also been used to launch a range of community initiatives in education, training and local enterprise development. Anglo American reports that it has also had a positive impact on coming to grips with topics such as housing, transport, recruitment and HIV/AIDS. In relation to indigenous issues, SEAT is meant to equip personnel to better understand, plan, implement and account for company’s the social and economic performance at the level of local operations.
ICMM: stakeholder engagement toolkit - Global
The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has created a kit comprising 17 tools covering the assessment, planning, management, and evaluation phases of community development as well as stakeholder relationships.
Talisman Energy: Implementing FPIC - Global
Talisman Energy has formulated a Global Community Relations Policy that governs the company’s relations with communities impacted by its projects. The Policy “provides direction to Talisman employees and contractors, for the creation of mechanisms which will better enable Talisman to engage with communities in a consistent and good faith manner, so that their concerns can be voiced and considered in decision-making regarding Talisman activities”. It also gives a specific definition of Talisman’s definition of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and mandates that a transparent grievance mechanism is implemented in each operating environment.
Akwé Kon Voluntary Guidelines: ensuring local community participation - Global
The Akwé Kon Voluntary Guidelines developed pursuant to obligations found in the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) provide guidance to governments and other stakeholders on the incorporation of cultural, environmental and social considerations of indigenous and local communities into new or existing impact-assessment procedures. The obligations found within the Guidelines are related to notification and public consultation about the proposed projects; identification of local communities (including indigenous peoples) likely to be affected by the project; establishment of mechanisms for community participation; establishment of an agreed process for recording the views of interested stakeholders; identification and provision of adequate human, financial, legal and technical resources for effective participation by local communities; establishment of an effective environmental management or monitoring plan; concluding agreed terms under which the project will proceed in a manner amenable to the various actors involved and the establishment of a review and appeals process.
Anglo American: Context specific engagement - Global
Anglo American’s 2007 Report to Society details its engagement with indigenous peoples in various parts of the globe and the ways in which context-specific relationships have been developed through the use of the SEAT (mentioned in the other Anglo American case study).
Treaty 8 First Nations: indigenous peoples’ perspective on consultation - Canada
The Treaty 8 First Nations of Alberta have published a Position Paper in order to clarify the core elements of a proposed new, mutually developed approach to consultation that, in their view, would rectify the flaws evident in the current manner of interaction with the government of Alberta. The objectives in respect of consultation and accommodation include cultural preservation (intimately tied to reserve and traditional lands); ensuring that there is capacity to build culture, language, traditions and prosperity connected to lands; ensuring meaningful participation in decision-making processes related to the planning and management, use and disposition of the lands and resources; and equal opportunity for benefit sharing in the wealth of resources through either project-related benefits or more general measures.
World Resources Institute: devising community consent techniques - Global
The World Resources Institute has published a report on the topic of community consent techniques that avoid conflict between stakeholders involved in large-scale, high impact projects. The report goes into detail about the detail and legal standards attached to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and makes a business case for its implementation which includes a depiction of the various types of risks associated with developing projects that lack a social licence to operate. The report also seeks to quantify the financial impacts that community opposition (or its avoidance) has had on various projects and their sponsors.
Australian Uranium Industry Initiative: indigenous peoples engagement - Australia
In Australia the uranium industry representatives and indigenous leaders have established a group that will meet at regular intervals to discuss areas of common interest. The founding members of the dialogue group include prominent experts in native title and indigenous economic development matters as well as senior executives at companies within the uranium industry. The group has a variety of objectives including ensuring the indigenous population is well informed about developments within the industry that are relevant to their quality of life and working to do what they can to narrow socio-economic disparities between the Aboriginal and general population.
IIED: conflict resolution approaches for business - Global
The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) has published a report on dealing with company-led approaches to conflict resolution in the forestry sector. Among other topics, the report deals with free, prior and informed consent as well as tools and techniques that businesses can employ related to recognising rights, stakeholder engagement, grievance mechanisms, benefit sharing and monitoring and evaluation.
De Beers: specific focus on indigenous rights - Global
De Beers has a land rights and resettlement practices subsection within its Community policy that is oriented towards indigenous rights. The policy has been developed to conform to the standards found in the UN DRIP and ILO Convention No. 169 on Tribal and Indigenous Peoples. De Beers is obliged to ensure that “all entities respect community governance and seek free and informed consent prior to initiating any operations that will have substantial impacts on their interests”.
Repsol: indigenous peoples engagement - Global
In its corporate sustainability reporting Repsol details the various types of engagement it has pursued in various South American countries. For instance, in Venezuela projects have been developed in collaboration with the Directorate for Indigenous Health to mitigate the health needs of the indigenous population of Monagas. In addition, in Ecuador the business supports sustainable cocoa farming initiatives.
Xstrata: capacity building for local communities
In its operations that are situated close to indigenous communities, Xstrata provides employment opportunities, bursaries, training and enterprise development programmes. In Australia, university scholarships in mining-related subjects worth AUD10,000 are open for indigenous students, in addition to funding dedicated to help develop leadership skills among young leaders of indigenous communities.
IFC: guide to stakeholder engagement in emerging economies - Global
As part of IFC’s ongoing commitment to capture and share global knowledge and good practice with their audiences, it has prepared a reference documented entitled ‘Stakeholder Engagement: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets’. This handbook aims to provide the reader with the good practice “essentials” for managing stakeholder relationships in a dynamic context, where unexpected events can and do occur, and facts on the ground change. The guide includes an elaboration of the key concepts and principles of stakeholder engagement and ideas about implementation throughout the project cycle. It also contains numerous case studies about the ways in which different companies in various parts of the world have approached issues related to this subject.
Gold Fields: respecting the rights of local and indigenous peoples - Global
Gold Fields seeks to ensure it maintains a social licence to operate in its operations. It takes a multi-layered approach to in order to achieve this, including community engagement, promoting socioeconomic development, local employment and capacity building and local procurement. Detail is provided in Gold Field’s ‘Securing Our Future Responsibly’ section of its corporate website.
ARM: taking a bottom up approach to building on local traditional knowledge - Global
The Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) is an independent, global-scale, pioneering initiative established in 2004 to enhance equity and wellbeing in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) communities through improved social, environmental and labour practices, good governance and the implementation of ecosystem restoration practices. ARM is committed to social justice and environmental responsibility as the values driving the transformation of ASM.
Gold Fields: training local populations in technical skills to increase employability - Global
Gold Fields indicates that one most common and pressing challenges facing the diverse communities in which they operate is unemployment. As a result, the company places particular emphasis on the use of local labour, where it is operationally and commercially viable. This ensures that Gold Fields has ready access to necessary skills and competencies, and are increasingly able to employ local citizens. The company has succeeded with such programmes at their Tarkwa mine in Ghana and Cerro Corona mine in Peru. Details can be found on their corporate website.
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