Sustainability Consulting + Community Engagement Advisory
The term 'sustainability' often causes confusion due to discrepancies between corporate claims and stakeholder expectations. To bridge this gap, companies can implement strategies such as aligning ESG metrics with business practices, conducting supply chain risk assessments, and developing and monitoring sustainability policies. They can also build capacity for sustainability standards, engage stakeholders in social and environmental programs, and perform environmental and social due diligence assessments.
Effective community engagement dovetails with social sustainability and is crucial for building trust. Seeking expert advice on community engagement strategies during planning, approvals, construction, operations, and closure ensures smoother approvals, better local relationships, and an improved social license to operate.
Effective community engagement dovetails with social sustainability and is crucial for building trust. Seeking expert advice on community engagement strategies during planning, approvals, construction, operations, and closure ensures smoother approvals, better local relationships, and an improved social license to operate.
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Social Risk Screening + Categorisation
Risk screening is an approach that identifies the key risks to a project and the types of social safeguards that are needed to address those risks. The approach helps determine the different sort of steps that need to be taken as part of a project approach to reduce and manage risks that include both inbound (risks for a company, government or project) and outbound (risks that the project has or is perceived to have on a community). This supports the resource allocation and budgeting required to safeguard identified project risks.
Project problem Tree
A problem tree analysis maps cause and effect to tackle project challenges, breaking them into manageable parts: the trunk (main problem), roots (causes), and branches (effects). It simplifies complex issues, like gaining approval for a contested project, by prioritising factors and focusing objectives. This process identifies central issues and actors, highlights gaps in evidence or resources, and builds shared understanding and action. By addressing present issues clearly, it lays the foundation for pathway solutions and informed decision-making.
Source: www.iisd.org
Theory of Change
Theory of Change (ToC) is a model that explains why your project will work and why a desired change is expected to occur. It is a great tool to get people inside and outside an organisation to agree to large-scale change. It begins by identifying long-term goals and works backward to determine the necessary preconditions and their causal relationships. This process results in an outcomes framework, which serves as a foundation for selecting activities that will lead to the desired outcomes. By clarifying the connections between actions, objectives and outcomes, a ToC enhances planning and evaluation, ensuring that interventions are strategically aligned with the pathways to achieve the intended impact.
Source: Sidney Harris
Social Risk + Opportunities analysis Report
A Social Risk and Opportunities Analysis report offers an initial examination of key social and community conditions pertinent to a proposed project. By identifying potential social risks and opportunities early, it provides insights into why stakeholders—such as landowners, neighbours, and community members—might have concerns or oppose the project. This analysis outlines likely social issues, informs the development of respectful engagement strategies, and highlights potential community benefits. Additionally, it can guide design options to mitigate social risks. Serving as an early warning tool, the report helps reduce overall social risk and enhances local benefit-sharing opportunities, thereby fostering community project support.
Development of a Project Community + Stakeholder Engagement Plan (CSEP)
A SEP is essential for creating a tailored engagement program to maximize community participation and collaboration on a project. However, many SEPs fail due to misunderstanding the local community and key issues driving opposition. Key SEP components include understanding community characteristics, determining engagement methods, creating a timeline, establishing record-keeping, and identifying key project messaging. Effective implementation reduces project risk by addressing local concerns, minimising opposition, and maximising trust and benefit-sharing in line with good practice.
Code of Conduct + Company-Community Relationship Protocol
A Code of Conduct (CoC) is essential when planning projects with both supporters and opponents. It establishes standards for participation and behaviour, guiding corporate and business practices according to ethical and legal norms. Implementing a CoC demonstrates a company's commitment to high ethical standards, exceeding legal requirements. This proactive approach leads to better outcomes for both the company and the community, reducing project deviations and minimising distractions from core objectives. By fostering transparency and accountability, a CoC helps build trust and facilitates smoother project execution.
Grievance Mechanism
A grievance mechanism is a formal process, either legal or non-legal, enabling individuals, workers, communities, or civil society organisations to lodge complaints about adverse business activities. These mechanisms vary in complexity based on local contexts and can operate at project, local, national, or intergovernmental levels. They differ in objectives, approaches, target groups, and government involvement. Some focus on direct company accountability, while others address state responsibilities or employ dialogue-based methods like mediation. When effectively designed, grievance mechanisms serve as early warning systems and risk mitigation tools, helping companies identify and address issues before they escalate.
Direct Community + Engagement Support
The team at Piers Gillespie Consulting can provide direct on the ground support for the implementation of community engagement when project proponents are limited in resources and light on the ground. The value of face-to-face community engagement has been proven repeatedly to reduce community opposition, increase project support, and demonstrate good practice stakeholder engagement where key stakeholders and community members are able to be involved in projects that directly impact them.
Social Impact Assessment (SIA)
The SIA focuses on a project's potential environmental, economic, and social impacts, aiming to avoid, minimise, mitigate, and offset them. It serves as a social risk mitigation tool by addressing how local stakeholders may perceive risks associated with the project. The SIA emphasises both impact mitigation and benefit enhancement to reduce project opposition. However, SIAs are often conducted as part of an EIA report without recognising their strategic value, which diminishes their potential role in ensuring project success.