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International Finance Corporation World Bank

2005, The World Bank, International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM), Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP)

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A key objective of the World Bank Group's Oil, Gas, and Mining Policy Division is to determine how extractive industry investments can better contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable development at both the community and country levels. The division is currently carrying out a sustainability work program intended to create and add value for all stakeholders: governments, affected communities, and private companies. The program includes the implementation of a variety of new initiatives to maximize the contribution of extractive activities to more sustainable national and local development in those countries and communities where nonrenewable resource extraction is or has the potential to become a significant economic activity. Such initiatives include this Community Development Toolkit.

The approach underlying the initiative is based on strengthening the capacity of all stakeholders to: articulate and represent their interests and needs in an informed way; and manage their interactions with other stakeholders in constructive ways that ultimately translate into equitable sharing of the various potential benefits – social and economic, short and long term – that can be derived from large-scale oil, gas, and mining development.

This project has focused on developing a methodological approach supported by relevant tools that can be used by the various stakeholders to identify opportunities, build durable relationships, and promote community development and create the basis for long-term community sustainability beyond the life of the extractive activity.

A consensus emerged around the need to have practical toolkits to facilitate implementation of the key elements of a generative process for fostering constructive working relationships between communities, companies, and government while securing the sustainability of communities. It was argued that the toolkits should themselves be developed through a participatory process involving all stakeholders.

The ICMM Sustainable Development Framework (2003), from ICMM’s perspective, provided an opportunity to develop tools to assist members, and others, implement ICMM’s 10 sustainable development principles against which corporate members have committed to measure and report their performance. In particular, the project was relevant to the ninth principle where members have committed to “contribute to the social, economic and institutional development of the communities in which they operate.”