Barrick Beyond Borders - May 2012 - Barrick Gold Corporation

ALTO CHICAMA COMMITMENTBRINGS BARRICK CSR PARTNERSTOGETHER IN PERUBarrick unveiled a major corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative in March that willbring together highly respected government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)working with Barrick on sustainable development projects in Peru.The Alto Chicama Commitment is a unique collaboration that will allow Barrick’s CSR partnersworking near its Lagunas Norte mine to leverage complementary aspects of their respectiveprojects, maximizing long-term benefits for local communities. The initial partners in the initiativeinclude: World Vision, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), theSodexo Foundation, the BBVA Foundation, Wayra SRL, the Apoyo Institute, the AlternativeFarming Institute and Exporting Highlands.Alfredo Anderson, CSR Manager for Barrick in Peru, described the cooperation envisionedunder the Alto Chicama Commitment as the “second stage” of Barrick’s CSR partnership initiatives.“We have a critical mass of CSR partners in northern Peru,” he says. “But we have beenworking with our partners on a one-to-one basis, missing opportunities that having a lot ofpartners working on complementary projects was presenting. This initiative is designed to takeadvantage of those opportunities.”Anderson highlighted several areas where there is room for collaboration between Barrickpartners participating in the Alto Chicama Commitment. For instance, USAID’s PovertyReduction and Alleviation (PRA) Project helps farmers in Peru’s La Libertad region identifymarkets for their products, while World Vision is implementing a project in the same regionthat provides start-up loans to small farming operations. The two projects are complementary,Anderson notes, as the PRA Project can help farming operations funded by World Vision determinewhich products are in demand, as well as identify potential buyers for those products.Similarly, there is room for cooperation between the two educational programs participatingin the initiative: The Apoyo Institute’s “Mathematics for Everyone” program and the BBVAFoundation’s “Reading is Being Ahead” program. Both operate in La Libertad–area schoolsand, by sharing their expertise and resources, they can improve their capacity and deliver theirprograms more effectively, Anderson says.One of Barrick’s primary roles in the Alto Chicama Commitment will be to act as a facilitator,ensuring its partners are aware of collaborative opportunities and communicate regularly,Anderson says. Barrick’s commitment to its partners under this initiative will be more than$1 million in 2012.While the Alto Chicama Commitment is unique because of the level of cooperation envisionedbetween Barrick’s CSR partners, it isn’t Barrick’s first multi-partner program. In Chile,the company’s Atacama Commitment has brought together eight Chilean NGOs, the U.N.Global Compact and a number of government partners to help alleviate poverty in the Atacamaregion near Barrick’s Pascua-Lama project. “The Alto Chicama Commitment certainly drawsfrom the Atacama Commitment,” Anderson says. “These alliances are examples of how Barrickis striving to develop a multi-partner approach to ensure we maximize the benefits of miningin the communities and countries where we operate.”28