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Community Capacity Building and a Social License to Operate in the Mining Industry
Buitrago, Isabel
Buitrago, Isabel
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"This paper aims at increasing our understanding about existing community capacity-building approaches and their implications for obtaining a social license to operate in the mining industry. The notion of ‘capacity building’ is gaining increasing currency in the mining sector in developing countries due to rapid rise in globalisation of the mining operations. Building a community’s capacity to understand and effectively respond to these transformations is vital for obtaining a social license to operate, as it promotes sustainable and locally relevant development. Accountability mechanisms such as global norms and international standards increasingly point to the need to build capacity among stakeholders but particularly among local communities adjacent to mining operations. International frameworks and mining companies have embraced the notion of community capacity-building as a driver to assist corporate social and operational performance. However, this narrow understanding of capacity-building through the prism of corporate social responsibility and ‘best practices’ is preventing the industry from impacting communities meaningfully and forging sustainable communities in the regions where it operates. The idea of social license to operate is being widely embedded across multiple industry sectors, as a social and economic reward from mining companies to compensate communities for natural resource extraction and gain social acceptance. Although both concepts are widely recognised in the minerals industry, insufficient attention has been paid to the implications of applying a top-down or a bottom-up capacity-building approach for obtaining a social license to operate, or indeed how these two concepts are linked and applied in practice. At times, communities lack the necessary capacities in the form of education and skills to deal with mining-led livelihood transformations. This is preventing both, mining companies and communities from forging sustainable livelihoods and responding to mining-led livelihood transformations, a situation that is creating discontent among communities and reducing the possibilities of obtaining and renewing a social license to operate for the industry. Based on review of current scholarly debates, accountability mechanisms in the mining industry and fieldwork findings in Colombia, this paper will contribute to understanding of the implications of exiting community capacity-building approaches for ensuring a social license to operate."
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2013-08
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With permission of the license/copyright holder