Building constructive relationships
with Indigenous Peoples
Audience C:
Training for staff in non-Community Relations roles, but who
have some interaction with external stakeholders
Aims and objectives of this session
In this session we’ll
explore:
Who are Indigenous Peoples?
Why are Indigenous Peoples issues relevant to business?
What do we need to do in practice with regards to Indigenous
Peoples?
Where do I find further information?
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Who are Indigenous Peoples?
Who are “Indigenous Peoples”?
While the definition of “Indigenous Peoples” is not universally accepted, it is
accepted that Indigenous Peoples share some of the following characteristics:
 Self-identification as indigenous
 Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler societies
 A common experience of colonialism and oppression
 Occupation of, or a strong link to, specific territories
 Distinct social, economic and political systems
 Language, culture and beliefs distinct from dominant sectors of society
 Resolved to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and distinctive
identities.
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Why are Indigenous Peoples issues
relevant to business?
Rationale for special focus and consideration
•
On-going marginalisation, discrimination
and human rights abuses
•
More vulnerable to negative impacts on
cultural and natural resources
•
Distinct cultural characteristics and
governance systems require specific
approaches
•
The Guiding Principles on Business and
Human Rights extends to the rights of
Indigenous Peoples.
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The business risks/benefits of an IP-sensitive
approach
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Corporate-level risks/benefits
Site-level risks/benefits
1. Reputation as a
responsible/irresponsible company
1. Building trust and respect and
increased community support – or the
opposite
2. Alignment/non-alignment with UN
Principles on Business and Human
Rights
2. Improved chances of sustained access
and uninterrupted operations – or
disrupted operations
3. Management/mismanagement of
issues which could pose reputational,
financial and legal risks
3. Management/ mismanagement of
issues and risks at site level
4. Withholding of consent for the project.
4. Benefits to company-community
relationships beyond just Indigenous
Peoples.
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Exercise: A few questions
Consider:
•
When and why do you interact with
Indigenous Peoples?
•
During these interactions, what guidance
and support do you sometimes feel you
need?
•
In your experience, where do you think
that Indigenous Peoples issues potentially
pose a risk to the company?
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What do we need to do in practice?
High level practical steps to be taken
Ensuring a sensitive approach to
Indigenous Peoples’ requires the
application of a number of practical steps:
• Engage to protect rights, minimise
impacts, maximise benefits
• Agree on meaningful engagement
processes
• Start engaging early in project planning
• Build IP capacity to negotiate equitably
• Understand and respect rights, interests
and perspectives
• Work to obtain consent for project
• If no IP consent – reconsider involvement
• Collaborate with authorities to ensure IP
best practice
• Anticipate and plan for disagreement.
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Adjust
Plan
Engage
Check
Best practice approaches
Engaging with
Indigenous Peoples
Do
Introducing stakeholder engagement
Good practice engagement aims to
ensure:
•
Indigenous Peoples understand their
rights and the full range of social and
environmental impacts
•
Input from Indigenous Peoples into
project planning, project design,
baseline studies, impact assessment
and impact management
•
•
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Agreement on appropriate decisionmaking processes and timeframes for
the on-going involvement of Indigenous
Peoples
Commitment to FPIC
•
All voices within the indigenous
community are heard
•
Records are kept of processes followed
and decisions reached
•
Capacity is built amongst Indigenough
Peoples so they can engage and
participate in decision-making.
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Getting engagement right from the start:
Making initial contact
Difficulties arise when you:
Avoid difficulties by:
Enter into an area without permission
Agreeing with the community at the outset
on how they wish to be engaged
Engage with the wrong groups who do not
have authority to speak on behalf of the
community
Understanding and respecting local entry
protocols
Fail to adequately explain what you’re
doing and why
Committing to open and transparent
communication
Do not allow sufficient time for community
decision making
Conducting an initial risk assessment
Disregard or are ignorant of local customs.
Ensuring all company representatives are
well briefed on local customs
Regularly monitoring engagement
Striving to be consistent
Using knowledgeable local advisors.
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Prepare: Engagement challenges
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1. Negative
legacies &
perceptions
2. Community
expectations
3. Language &
communication
4. Lack of capacity
for engagement
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Responding to engagement challenges
1. Negative legacies &
perceptions
2. Managing community
expectations
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Show respect
Use trusted intermediary
Senior management
interaction
Acknowledge past
mistakes
Open about +/Highlight co. standards
Honour historical
commitments
Listen/note responses
and questions.
•
•
•
3. Language &
communication
Clear, transparent
•
communication
Consistent messaging
Regular communication •
supported by
overarching plan
•
Commitments register, in
writing.
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Be aware of language
barriers and
requirements
Suitable engagement
team
Appropriate engagement
materials.
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Building engagement capacity in companies
Leading companies recognise the importance of having the right team in place at
the corporate and operational level, underpinned by strong management
systems.
Top-level
managemen
t
commitment
Qualified &
experienced
staff
Indigenous
advisers
Ensuring
gender
sensitivity
Company-level ingredients to fostering
engagement capacity with Indigenous Peoples
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Crosscultural
training
Introducing FPIC
Free
People are able to freely make decisions
without coercion, intimidation or
manipulation.
Prior
Sufficient time is allocated for people to be
involved in the decision-making process
before key project decisions are made and
impacts occur.
Informed
People are fully informed about the project
and its potential impacts and benefits, and
the various perspectives regarding the
project (both positive and negative).
Consent
There are effective processes for affected
Indigenous Peoples to approve or withhold
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their consent, consistent with their decisionmaking processes, and that their decisions
are respected and upheld.
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Why is FPIC relevant to Indigenous Peoples and
mining?
FPIC is increasingly relevant because:
•
It seeks to address historical exclusion and
disempowerment of Indigenous Peoples
•
It’s mandated in various international and
national legal and policy documents
•
It’s aligned with Indigenous Peoples’ pursuit of
the right to self-determination and the rights to
lands and territories
•
It supports broader debates around ensuring a
fair distribution of mining costs, benefits, risks,
responsibilities
•
It is an ethical principle – those affected should
be informed and allowed to give or withhold
consent.
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F 
P 
I 
C ?
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FPIC: A process and an outcome
The process
Free decisions
Sufficient time
Fully informed
The outcome
The application
• New projects and changes
to existing projects, where
projects have significant
impacts on Indigenous
Peoples
• Not applied retrospectively
• Can be extended to nonIPs in contexts where both
IPs and non-IPs are
significantly impacted upon
Give or
withhold
consent
Based on good faith negotiation
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Common challenges with FPIC
FPIC is not always a legal requirement
Indigenous Peoples are not always formally recognised
Not always clear who does/doesn’t have a claim to be involved in the consent
process
Sometimes there is a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples, with
differential rights
Unanimous consent is not always achieved
Sometimes consent is not achieved but government approves the project regardless.
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Adjust
Plan
Engag
e
Check
Best practice approaches
Understanding your context
Do
Baseline information of specific relevance to
Indigenous Peoples
• Customary property rights, land claims,
disconnection from rights
• Social structures, roles and
responsibilities
• Cultural protocols
• Governance and decision making
• Environment and natural resource
management strategies
• Knowledge of local foods and medicines
• Knowledge of health and education
• Structure and operation of the local
economy, common property rights and
reciprocity
How different are these information
requirements for non-Indigenous
Peoples communities?
• Intangible cultural heritage.
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Indigenous Peoples: Good practice research
• Identify if the community has guidelines
about conducting research
• Negotiate level of community participation
in the design, collection, analysis of the
process
• Seek broad-based support from the
indigenous community prior to
commencing the research
• Ensure informed consent
• Conduct surveys and interviews in the
local language
All of this, in some way or
another, is about respect!
• Use research methods that facilitate
participation
• Be sensitive about what can/can’t be
shared publically
• Make time for an iterative process.
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Exercise: Exploring different understandings of
context
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Adjust
Plan
Engag
e
Check
Best practice approaches
Identifying impacts
Do
Potential negative impacts on Indigenous Peoples
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
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Physical or economic displacement/resettlement
Reduced ability to carry on traditional livelihoods due to loss of access to land
and/or damage or destruction of key resources
Destruction of, or damage to, culturally and/or spiritually significant sites and
landscapes – both tangible and intangible
Social dislocation and erosion of cultural values due to rapid economic and social
change
Social conflicts over the distribution and value of mining-related benefits (e.g.
royalties, jobs)
Increased risk of exposure to diseases (e.g. AIDS, tuberculosis)
Increase in social problems (e.g. alcoholism, drug use, gambling, prostitution, etc.).
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Potential positive impacts on Indigenous Peoples
 Improved infrastructure and services (e.g. access to clean water, sanitation, power,
roads)
 Improved support for education and better resources and facilities
 Enhanced employment and business opportunities
 Increased income flows through royalty streams and compensation payments
 Improved living standards due to increased wealth
 Company support for identification, protection and promotion of cultural heritage
 Environmental restoration and protection.
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Adjust
Plan
Engag
e
Check
Best practice approaches
Impact mitigation
and enhancement
Do
Impact mitigation: Principles of good practice
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Avoid, wherever
possible
If unavoidable,
minimise and
compensate
Go “beyond
compliance”
Impact
management
plans with clarity
on responsibilities,
timing, resources
Seek input from
IPs on
management
measures
Responsibility for
impacts across all
business activities
& relationships
On-going
monitoring &
evaluation, with
meaningful KPIs
Make sure internal
impacts are
managed
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Impact mitigation and enhancement
Key focus areas (1 of 2)
1. Managing workforce and contractor
behaviour
2. Cultural preservation
Cross-cultural training
Develop and implement cultural heritage
plans prior to project activities
Agreed codes of conduct
Include focus on tangible and intangible
aspects.
Firm disciplinary action
Codes of behaviour embedded in
contracts.
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Impact mitigation and enhancement
Key focus areas (2 of 2)
3. Protect and rehabilitate the
environment
4. Addressing discrimination and historical
disadvantage
This is critical due to intimate connection of
IPs with the natural environment
Limits on extent to which underlying causes
of IP marginalisation can be addressed by
mining companies
Efforts taken must draw on local IP
knowledge
Well designed company programmes can
help break down marginalisation.
Participatory impact management essential.
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Impact enhancement:
Strengthening the community asset base
A stronger
asset base
Better
companycommunity
relationship
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Example contributions:
• Employment and
human capital
development
• Creating business
opportunities
• Improving
infrastructure and
services.
Improved
community
well being
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Community agreements: Business and community
benefits
Companies
A community agreement is a
negotiated, legally binding
agreement between a
company and affected
communities.
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Indigenous
Communities
Manages key
business risks,
and support
healthy
companycommunity
relations.
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Provides a
structured
mechanism for
protecting rights,
interests and
access to
benefits, and
elevates to
partner status.
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Examples of issues to be addressed in
community agreements
Community development and upliftment
Financial payments and disbursement arrangements
Employment & goods/services
Impact management
Governance arrangements
Use of land.
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Success factors for agreements
Effective agreements depend, first and foremost, on both parties having a thorough
understanding of each other’s objectives and needs.

Agreements which build and sustain mutually beneficial relationships

Agreement perceived as fair and equitable by both parties

Clear definition of roles and responsibilities of both parties

Focus on long-term outcomes and post-project sustainability

Support from throughout the community and company

Willingness of all parties to change and improve the agreement as circumstances
require

Capacity building to ensure effective participation of all parties

Governance structures are effective, transparent and accountable and adequately
resourced

Proper implementation and monitoring of the agreement.
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Dealing with grievances: A key element of check
and adjust
Given the vulnerability of Indigenous
Peoples to mining impacts, it is critical
that an effective grievance/complaints
mechanism is in place so that concerns
can be raised and addressed.
A grievance mechanism plays a key role in
raising issues and concerns across the full
spectrum of operational impacts …. and is
therefore relevant across all departments.
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Additional resources
Where can I find more information?
ICMM’s response to Indigenous Peoples
ICMM SD Framework
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ICMM Indigenous
Peoples and Mining
Position Statement
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ICMM Good Practice
Guide: Indigenous
Peoples and Mining
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Other resources
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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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