[PDF] Community Development Toolkit - CommDev

Social Impact and12Opportunities AssessmentDescriptionThe process of social impact assessment(SIA) can limit itself to identifying negativeimpacts and mitigating them, rather thanalso considering positive aspects of thepresence of a project. An SIA should identifypositive as well as negative impacts and lookfor methods of enhancing the opportunitiesthat can flow from the positive impacts aswell as offsetting the negative ones. For thisreason, the tool described here is a SocialImpact and Opportunities Assessment (SIOA).The opportunities can form the basis for asustainable community development program,if harnessed in a co-operative participatoryplanning program, with full engagementfrom the local community, government andother stakeholders. In addition, thepurposeful identification and enhancement ofopportunities that can add value to aproject’s presence within a community fromthe start will make the challenges ofengagement, local participation and a morecollaborative and sustainable communitydevelopment effort throughout the life cycleof the project easier. This approach, ofenhancing positive project impacts forcommunity development purposes, goingbeyond the obligatory mitigation of negativeimpacts, is explained comprehensively in theIFC’s Strategic Community Investmenthandbook. 35Mining projects have historically concernedthemselves primarily with developmentswithin their lease boundaries or connectedto the infrastructure associated with theirmines. Impact assessments have generallyfocused on the mine’s direct impact area,usually within a defined geographic space.If cumulative impacts, impacts across aregional or provincial level and the likelihoodof rapid population growth are identified inthe impact assessment stage, then a regionalplanning approach will be warranted. 36Ideally, especially for large-scale projects,adopting a regional approach should beginwhen baseline studies commence. Impactassessments are undertaken beforecommencing construction.PurposeTo assess the potential social and economicimpacts, and identify opportunities,generated by your project. Having identifiedlikely impacts, propose measures to mitigateor offset potential negative impacts andmaximize positive impacts. Going beyond thebasic SIA model, a community-developmentfocusedSIA approach should include anopportunity assessment to enhance positivedevelopment impacts of the project as wellas identifying impacts that need to bemitigated. Like baseline studies, SIOAsbenefit from having input from communitymembers and other stakeholders, as theyoften identify potential impacts andopportunities that may not be evident toresearchers and company staff. Specificinclusion of the likely impacts of the projecton women and vulnerable and/ormarginalized groups is essential.It is important to identify the barriers andconstraints to participation along genderlines, as opportunities for local economicdevelopment can be very different fromthe perspectives of men and women.Separate consultations with women’s andmen’s groups should take place to ensurethat gender-specific impacts andopportunities can be clearly identified.ASSESSMENT TOOLS35 IFC, Strategic Community Investment: A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in EmergingMarkets, and Strategic Community Investment: A Quick Guide, Highlights from IFC’s Good Practice Handbook,Washington DC, 2010.Both available at: www.ifc.org/ifcext/sustainability.nsf/content/publications_handbook_communityinvestment36 See IFC’s Performance Standard 1, Washington DC, 2012 for more detail on these topics. Available at: www.ifc.orgCommunity Development Toolkit133