ICMM guidance on measuring
community support
Audience B:
Detailed training for Community Relations Professionals
Aims and objectives of this session
In this session we’ll
explore:
What is community support and why is it important to
business?
The ICMM framework for understanding and measuring
community support
Guidance in the application of the toolkit and assessment
process
Signposting to other relevant guidance.
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Exercise: Hearing your opinions
1. What does the term
“community support”
mean to you?
1. How would you go about
measuring community
support?
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What is community support?
In essence, it is a community’s
willingness to have a mining
operation conduct its business
within their community,
neighbourhood, local area and
wider district.
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•
“Social licence to operate”
•
The level of acceptance or approval
granted to an operation or project by the
local community and other stakeholders
•
It is additional to formal licences,
planning permissions and permits from
government agencies
•
Community support is not the support
that a company gives to the community.
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What do we mean by “community”?
A residential or physical
settlement located in a
shared geographic area –
which might include people
with shared
characteristics and
interests in common,
although this isn’t
necessarily the case.
Communities are not static,
homogenous units. They
are heterogenous, forever
changing.
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The business case for community support
Positive
companycommunity
relationships
Achieving
business
objectives and
operational
success
Community support is regarded widely as important, but there is generally a lack of
clarity on how to achieve it or how to measure it.
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Introducing the toolkit
and the assessment process
Introducing the toolkit
This toolkit helps mining and metals
companies to:
 Understand the factors that influence
community support and measure the
level of community support
 Visualise the levels of community
support amongst stakeholders
 Organise how they approach community
relations and identify ways to change
existing strategies and approaches.
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Why is understanding levels of community
support important?
Understanding the context is an
essential element of planning.
It helps ensure informed and appropriate
management responses and creates
foundation for all further action.
The ICMM toolkit aligns with the P-D-C-A
(and engage) cycle, at the plan, check and
engage steps.
By understanding levels of community
support, you can plan for improved
relationship building, and monitor/check
changes over time.
Engagement with external and internal
stakeholders is key to the assessment
process.
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Phase 3
Plan - what
needs to be
done in
preparation?
Measure - what
is the current
level of
community
support?
Phase 4
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Understand what is
community
support?
Phase 2
Phase 1
Key phases in the assessment process
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Assess and
respond - why
and how to
improve?
What is community support?
Phase 1: Understand
The ICMM framework for understanding
community support
Community support is influenced by a company’s activities and behaviour towards
its host community, and by the context in which it operates.
Industry reputation
Respect
Trust
Equity and
social capital
considerations
Socio-political
context and
governance
Compatibility of
interests
Legitimacy
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An overview of the indicators
3. Respect
4. Trust
1.
Legitimacy
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2. Compatibility of
interests
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Indicator 1: Legitimacy
This is the baseline required for any
mining project to be deemed legitimate
by its stakeholders.
Includes a combination of formal and
informal approvals, i.e.:
•
Legal permission
•
Societal, and
•
Individual acceptance
which allow a company to develop a project.
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3. Respect
4. Trust
2.
Compatibility of
interests
1.
Legitimacy
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Indicator 2: Compatibility of interests
Positive relationships depend on a
certain level of compatibility between a
company’s and local communities’
interests.
Key elements include:
•
Interests are aligned or complementary
•
Interests are not mutually exclusive
•
4. Trust
Interactions are seen as win-win.
Where interests are not compatible, parties
may focus on preventing their counterparts
from achieving their interests rather than
working to seek mutually beneficial
solutions.
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3. Respect
2.
Compatibility of
interests
1.
Legitimacy
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Indicator 3: Respect
Respectful relationships are
underpinned by the recognition that
everyone has inherent value.
Key elements include:
•
Respect is both a feeling and a
behaviour in interpersonal dynamics
•
Cultural sensitivities are essential
•
o
o
o
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3. Respect
4. Trust
Respect can de demonstrated in the
simplest of ways – at the interpersonal
and at the company-community level,
like:
2.
Compatibility of
interests
1.
Legitimacy
Doing what we say we will do
Information-sharing
Joint problem-solving and decisionmaking.
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Indicator 4: Trust
Trusting relationships facilitate – and are
facilitated by – a high degree of
communication, understanding,
collaboration and a belief in the
possibility of mutual benefit.
3. Respect
Key elements include:
•
Truthfulness
•
Credibility
•
Transparency
•
Alignment between expectations and
capacity.
4. Trust
2.
Compatibility of
interests
1.
Legitimacy
Trust is two-sided. It requires that both
parties find each other to be trustworthy and
are themselves able to express that trust.
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An overview of the contextual factors
Industry reputation
Equity and social
capital
considerations
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Socio-political
context and
governance
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Contextual factor 1: Socio-political and
governance context
Credible and effective governance creates an
atmosphere conducive to healthy companycommunity relationships.
2. Industry
reputation
What this means in practice:
•
Clear and reputable legal framework, with
institutional capacity to execute this
framework, in accountable and reliable
manner
•
Fair and well-defined rules by which mining
companies have to abide
•
Governments with strong institutional capacity,
that are held accountable through political
processes.
3. Equity
and social
capital
considerations
Key elements include:
•
Government legitimacy and capacity
•
Legitimacy and accountability of political
processes.
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1. Sociopolitical
context and
governance
Contextual factor 2: Reputational context
The reputation of the mining industry,
and your company in other locations,
can have significant impact on the ease
with which a project gains community
support.
Stakeholder receptiveness to a particular
mining project is often influenced – for good
or for bad – by the past and present actions
of other mining companies in the same
area.
2. Industry
reputation
3. Equity
and social
capital
considerations
1. Sociopolitical
context and
governance
Key elements include:
•
The reputation of the mining industry
•
Your company’s reputation in other
operating contexts.
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Contextual factor 3: Equity and social capital
considerations
Equity = notions of fairness
•
Perceptions about the comparative
distribution of impacts and benefits. What is
considered fair, and why?
Social capital = strength of social networks
and connections with a community
•
Increased social capital = increased ability
to proactively engage with external parties
(e.g. mining companies)
2. Industry
reputation
3. Equity
and social
capital
considerations
Key elements include:
•
Perceived fairness in terms of the
distribution of costs and benefits
•
The strength of social networks to engage
effectively.
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1. Sociopolitical
context and
governance
What needs to be done in preparation for the assessment?
Phase 2: Plan
Planning for the assessment
Who?
Independent or
internal team
Key is levels of
comfort of
stakeholders
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When?
With what?
Biennial or every
5 years
Existing resources
and staff are key to
planning
Throughout project
lifecycle
Assessment must
complement/
leverage existing
processes
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Assessment: Key steps
Step 1:
Define the
objectives of the
assessment
Step 2:
Select external
stakeholders
Step 3:
Refine the
assessment
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Step 1: Define the objectives of the assessment
Broad objectives
•
To know what the levels of community support actually are
•
To better understand the reason for the levels so that targeted efforts can be made to
strengthen company-community relationships
•
However, each site will have specific motivations for conducting the assessment, which
will shape the “how” and the “who”.
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Step 2: Select external stakeholders
Practitioners are required to do the following:
1. Decide which stakeholders or stakeholder groups to include in the assessment
•
This will be influenced by whether you want to understand an overall level of
community support across all stakeholder groups, OR
•
Whether the assessment will differentiate between the different perspectives of
multiple stakeholder groups.
2. Refer to existing stakeholder registers and maps when identifying who to approach
3. Remember to include the vulnerable and marginalised, and those who you don’t have a
strong relationship with.
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Step 3: Refine and implement the surveys
Source of information for the
assessment:
•
Data gathered by asking a series of
questions (see Annex A)
•
Questions aimed at understanding
stakeholders’ opinions of company
performance with regard to their
perspectives on the four indicators
and three contextual factors
•
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Responses to each question
assigned a number ranging from -2
to +2
For the assessment:
•
Choose the questions that are most
relevant to your stakeholders and
your site
•
Adjust or add additional questions if
necessary
•
The assessment questions can be
asked through online platforms,
individual face-to-face interviews
and/or focus groups.
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What is the current level of community support?
Phase 3: Measure
Measuring community support: Key steps
Step 3:
Implement the
assessment
Step 4:
Manage and
process the data
Step 5:
Visualise the
results
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Annex A: Example indicator questions on
legitimacy
NOTE: questions in grey = primary questions. Questions in white =
supplementary questions, allowing for more detailed assessment.
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Annex A: Example contextual questions on
reputational context
All answers and associated scores must be recorded and tallied up per
indicator or contextual factor.
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Step 4: Manage and process the data
•
Use Excel (or similar) to record results from the stakeholder interviews
•
The scores for all questions asked on one indicator or one contextual factor are
averaged to give a single score for that metric
•
You will therefore have a composite score for each indicator and each contextual factor,
for each single stakeholder interviewed
•
These composite scores are then translated into the overarching continuums provided
in Annex B. See example below for legitimacy.
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Step 4: Manage and process the data
Analysis of the assessment scores
No overall community support rating per site or per stakeholder. Calculations
stay disaggregated per indicator and per contextual factor.
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Step 5: Visualise the results
Community support of three stakeholder groups
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Step 5: Visualise the results
Monitoring community support over time
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Why is the current level of community support
as it is and how can it be improved?
Phase 4: Assess and respond
Assess and respond: Key steps
Step 6:
Determine perception
disparities
Step 7:
Identify reasons and
propose solutions
Step 8:
Stakeholder feedback and
discuss next steps
Step 9:
Integrate suggestions into
planning
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Understanding post-assessment results
✓
Where assessment results are
positive: Existing social performance
approaches can be used to maintain
those relationships.
✗
Where community support
assessment results are negative:
Changes may need to be made to
existing social performance approaches,
and/or structural or organizational issues
addressed.
Additional analysis is required to understand exactly what is needed.
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Step 6: Determine perception disparities
The goal is to determine if company and
stakeholder perceptions differ regarding
levels of community support.
•
Understanding what the company thinks
stakeholders feel about the quality of
community–company relationships
•
Where do differences in perception lie?
•
Where are the blind spots and
misconceptions?
•
What might differences in perception tell
us about the state of the relationship?
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Annex A:
Questions to community focus
on community perceptions of
the site and the external
context.
Annex E:
Questions to company focus
on company understanding of
how external stakeholders
perceive the site and the
external context.
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Exercise: Conduct your own internal assessment
of community support
An exercise in exploring
internal understanding of
community support
(Annex E)
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Step 7: Identify reasons and propose solutions
Find out why there are low levels of support and propose ways to improve on
the community-company relationships.
Indicator and score
Related company
and stakeholder
actions
Related contextual
factors
Proposed actions
The name of the
indicator
and the average
ranking given by the
stakeholder’s
responses.
Your analysis of
what the company
may have done (or
failed to do) to
contribute to the low
indicator score and
how the stakeholder
responded to that
situation.
The contextual
A proposal for how
factors that may play to address the
a role in this
situation.
situation.
(Consider using the
tool in Annex F to
inform actions
required.)
Source: Table 5 – suggested template for analysing levels of community support and proposed actions (see page
32).
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Identifying and addressing internal
organisational challenges
1. Stakeholder identification & analysis
Approaches
taken to these
activity areas,
with a focus on
implications for
community
support
2. Company-community interactions
3. Community investment
4. Impact management
5. Planning & monitoring
Human and
financial
resources,
and
corporate
culture
6. Human resources
7. Company operational-level culture
8. Financial & other resources
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Other resources
Other relevant ICMM guidance
ICMM Stakeholder
Research Toolkit (2015)
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ICMM Community
Development Toolkit (2012)
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International Council on Mining and Metals
(ICMM)
35/38 Portman Square
London W1H 6LR
United Kingdom
Switchboard: +44 (0) 20 7467 5070
Main Fax: +44 (0) 20 7467 5071
E-mail: [email protected]
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