Date: 6/19/2006
Duration: 93 minutes
Language: English
Country/Region: World
Keywords: Energy, Mining, Community Driven Development
Presenters:
Christine Delport
Arturo Melville
Juraj Mesik
Kyle Petersen
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 this morning breakout session, chaired by Juraj Mesik, Senior Operations Officer at the World Bank, a panel of experts discussed the expansion of community foundations following the departure of oil, gas and mining companies from a region.
Mesik described the six basic characteristics of community foundations: having a globally-defined mission, serving a geographically-defined community, making grants, tapping a broad range of donors, possessing an endowment, and existing as an independent legal entity. Kyle Petersen, Managing Director of the Foundation Strategy Group, shared the experiences of his consulting firm over the last six years. “We really think that the focus should be on creating value,” he said, describing the framework developed by FSG to act as an effective grant-maker. He spoke of four forms of value and emphasized looking at corporations and the unique assets that they bring.
Christine Delport, Executive Director of the Greater Rustenburg Community Foundation, offered practical applications based on a region of South Africa dominated by platinum-mining corporations. Delport said local unemployment has climbed to 47 percent in recent years and that, coupled with rises in illiteracy and HIV/AIDS, it has reached a critical level. Arturo Melville, Director of the Fundación Sierra Madre, told of his foundation’s successes and difficulties in planning and implementing sustainable, community-based development and capacity building programs in the local municipalities surrounding the Marlin mine in rural Guatemala.
