WORKSHOP: Introduction and Innovative Approaches to Making Trilateral Partnerships Work

Duration: 97 minutes
Language: English
Country/Region: World
Keyword: Energy, Mining, Culture and Development

Presenters: 

Cholpon Dyikanova
Rashad Kaldany
Rachel Kyte
Sixtus Mulenga
Harrry Pastuszek
Jim Schenck
Dafna Tapiero

DESCRIPTION

On June 19, 2006, the Sustainable Community Development Fund (CommDev) hosted a day-long conference at the IFC Building on Washington, D.C., to discuss “Sharing Experience: Enhancing the Benefits to Communities from Extractive Industry Projects.” The conference aimed at sharing experiences, conducting training, and raising awareness of the community development work being implemented in communities impacted by extractive industries. In the introduction to this workshop, chairman Rashad Kaldany, Director of the Oil, Gas, Mining and Chemicals Department at the World Bank, highlighted the objectives for the event and insisted that all stakeholders should be actively engaged in ensuring that communities surrounding extractive industry sites benefit from those projects.

Dafna Tapiero, Manager of CommDev, introduced the day’s opening panel discussion, which addressed innovative approaches to making trilateral partnerships work – from identifying stakeholders and building their capacity to community development strategy design and implementation. Harry Pastuszek, Policy Officer in the Social Responsibility Program at the IFC, gave an overview of the IFC’s experiences in community development. Dr. Sixtus Mulenga, Vice President for Open Pits, Mineral Resources, Safety & Environment at the Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia, emphasized the need to take into account local corporate culture and said that not working with the local government is a recipe for failure. The lone NGO representative on the panel, Cholpon Dyikanova, Director of Bashat, described her group’s snow leopard preservation project in the Kyrgyz Republic. Finally, Jim Schenck, Manager of Sustainable Development for Glamis Gold, addressed the corporate values held by his company, which operates the Marlin mine in rural Guatemala.

During a question-and-answer period, audience members inquired about risk management and industry activity monitoring by communities. Afterward, Rachel Kyte, Director of Environment and Social Development at the IFC, followed up the opening session with a discussion of the issues at stake and the IFC experience. Kyte framed the IFC’s path of learning and looked at six enduring challenges for community development.