Green Economy Journal Issue 41

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MINING Lessons learned Creating an environment conducive to self-sustainable community development during the life of mine BY LISL FAIR, SRK CONSULTING Livelihood resilience in mining communities is now more important than ever. New threats to self-sustainable livelihoods in these communities have emerged in the past six months. These threats include more mines choosing to reduce production or remain on care and maintenance post-lockdown; worldwide economic volatility; and the widespread socio-economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic affecting lower-income families disproportionally. These factors beg the question: how can development practices increase resilience and create an environment for self-sustainable community development in mining footprint areas? Key paradigm shifts in development practice are required, notably the need to effect meaningful change that avoids perpetuating social injustice based on historical narratives and economic imbalance of power. This involves moving beyond paternalistic practices aiming to develop for, to a participative asset-based process where mines create meaningful longterm value with communities. The process of creating value needs longerterm objectives, turning short-term ‘charity projects’ into self-sustaining enterprises that help mining communities build resilience and withstand fluctuations in mining activities. Success stories are rare, but sustainability practitioners working to co-create resilient communities do have valuable lessons on making this happen. An important focus of good practice throughout the mining lifecycle is on its social impact, and how a proactive process of concurrent social self-sustainable development can make communities more resilient. This necessitates a move away from community dependence on the revenues flowing directly from the mining operation. A non-traditional approach Most mines contribute significantly to local social development projects, either through regulatory requirements or through corporate social investment (CSI) initiatives. Contributions are often made without upfront consultation with recipients, effectively excluding recipients from taking ownership throughout the project’s lifecycle. Examples of this development approach are infrastructure projects such as schools or water wells for communities. All too often, they are developed for communities, with no clear community ownership and maintenance plan. Traditional approaches to community development do little to create self-sustainable communities. There have, however, been recent practical efforts by mines to take a new approach to community projects – supporting them to build a sustainable foundation for a future beyond the life of the mine. Sustaining early learning An example of a project showing how this can be done is the Lesedi Early Childhood Development Centre near Ivanhoe Mines’ Platreef Project in South Africa’s Limpopo province. Initially funded by Ivanhoe Mines in terms of the CSI mandate within the mine’s legislated Social and Labour Lesedi volunteers in the tree nursery established to help make their early childhood centre self-sustainable. Plan (SLP), the centre has developed a path that supports its independence. Started in 2011 as a volunteer organisation, Lesedi was supported by the mine in a five-year multi-pronged engagement from 2014 to 2019. The support included training courses starting in 2016 – on leadership, childcare and catering – that would foster self-sufficiency. Lesedi and the mine also collaborated on an enterprise approach to generate revenue, starting a tree nursery in 2017. In 2018, the self-sustainability training continued with a process of asset mapping, business viability testing, and a micro-MBA small business course. The project expanded its nursery in 2019 and sought funding from other social development funds. From our experience, creating self-sustainable community development is most effective if started early in the mine life-cycle. To foster this process, an innovative ‘Self-Sustainability Toolkit’ has been developed to help project teams consider self-sustainability right from the start. This toolkit is applied within a framework covering the full project life-cycle, from initial consultation phases and benchmarking through to project selfmanagement and independence. The instrument tracks self-sustainability interventions and helps evaluate existing projects against self-sustainability actions. It also poses questions such as these: Did the beneficiaries initiate or request the proposed project – at least in broad concept? Did the project team involve the beneficiaries in the project planning and design? Do the project beneficiaries understand that the ultimate aim is for the project to be financially self-sustainable? Did the beneficiaries receive training in basic project and business management? The practical lessons in creating self-sustainable social development projects learned in the mining sector to date have been valuable. They should be shared, adapted, and emulated – where appropriate – as we continue to build good practice in this important field. 24 greeneconomy.media
ENVIRONMENT SOLVED ENVIRONMENT MINING | WATER INFRASTRUCTURE | ENERGY www.srk.co.za
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