Local Benefit Sharing
Photo by Dominic Chavez
Today, infrastructure companies are strengthening their community investment strategies. This shift comes as stakeholder expectations evolve and global momentum grows for a just transition to a more inclusive, clean, and equitable economy. It also comes at a time of rising threats to companies’ operational stability, including climate risks, widening gaps in infrastructure access, and an increase in fragility and conflict worldwide.
Community investment strategies often focus on creating local benefits such as jobs, social service improvements in areas such as education and health, and environmental gains such as rehabilitated natural habitats—all of which can bring value to communities.
Effective stakeholder engagement is critical to ensuring that local communities see meaningful benefits. It is also critical to business continuity because it ensures that people maintain positive perceptions of the company and its actions. Engaging with stakeholders helps a company understand local concerns and priorities, manage expectations, and make certain that communities remain supportive of a project, especially during development and construction phases.
Global Gender by The Numbers
$800 Billion
Income lost by women in 2020. Mostly from pandemic-impacted informal sector jobs
22%
Of the conventional energy workforce is female
10%
Of board seats in the Top 500 mining companies are held by women
76%
Of all care work is performed by women while in income-earning work & navigating safety concerns
60%
Of women have reported sexual harassment in public transport & streets around the world
35%
Of women have experienced either physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or non-partner
IFC’s Sustainable Infrastructure (SI) Advisory supports IFC clients’ efforts to strengthen relationships with communities where they operate and create lasting local benefits. This support includes
- Developing participatory and inclusive community engagement processes
- Involving communities in designing company-supported investment strategies to address local priorities
- Building capacity of local stakeholders, including governments, communities, and partners
- Promoting gender equality across company operations, including community investments
- Creating and managing livelihood and local supplier development programs
- Designing collaborations and partnerships that support greater scale and innovation
- Conducting climate risk and resilience assessments
In Action
RENEWABLE ENERGY | POLAND
Supporting responsible offshore wind development
Equinor, an international energy company headquartered in Norway, and Polenergia, one of the Poland’s largest private energy groups, are jointly developing three offshore wind projects in the Baltic Sea. IFC’s SI Advisory team worked with the joint venture to share good international practices on stakeholder engagement, community investment, local content, and benefit sharing. The efforts are critical for Poland as the country seeks to achieve its clean energy goals, while ensuring the development of an inclusive, diverse, and equitable offshore wind industry. Although the knowledge exchange was tailored to the national context, the approach can be replicated in all markets.
RENEWABLE ENERGY | EGYPT
Building capacity to engage with communities and deliver local benefits
AMEA Power is one of the fastest growing renewable energy companies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia , with a clean energy pipeline of over 6GW across 20 countries. In advance of the construction of AMEA’s 500MW Abydos Solar project in Egypt, IFC’s SI Advisory team worked with the company’s staff to strengthen their stakeholder engagement skills. A virtual training reached AMEA staff across 10 sites in 8 countries. In addition, IFC provided on-the-job training and strategic advice to support AMEA’s corporate social responsibility efforts.
MINING | GUINEA
Local supply chain development
SI Advisory’s partnership with Guinea Alumina Corporation (GAC) has boosted the company’s social and economic development initiatives and enhanced benefits to host communities around mining operations. Underpinned by a strong gender focus, the efforts strengthened GAC’s local content, along with strategic community and stakeholder engagement. A local supplier development program has helped 100 SMEs access business opportunities in the GAC supply chain. This collaboration leverages IFC’s sector work, such as the development of a digital buyer supplier marketplace. The platform has more than 2,000 registered members, including local suppliers, mining companies, and financial institutions. To date, the platform has:
- Published 200 tenders
- Trained more than 3,000 SME participants, including 500 women-owned enterprises
- Facilitated $21 million in contracts and $10 million in loans for local suppliers in the mining sector
MINING | PERU
Shared value across industries in the Moquegua region
In Peru, IFC is collaborating with diverse stakeholders as part of the “Moquegua Crece” (Moquegua Grows) initiative. This coordinated approach brings together IFC, Anglo American, M.C. Inversiones Peru (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation), Engie Peru, and the Moquegua regional government to create local economic and social opportunities. “Moquegua Crece” aims to:
- Generate employment and income by developing high potential value chains in the region, such as in agriculture and aquaculture.
- Improve natural resources management, such as by enhancing water quality and availability.
- Strengthen local institutional capacity.
The partnership is already working with local governments to bolster the public investment process. Efforts also include improving local services and infrastructure through the adoption of public infrastructure maintenance plans, with prioritized public investment in transport and education— part of a collaboration with the regional government on its 2030 development plan.
Photo by Karel Prinsloo, IFC
Related Content
Supporting Municipal Good Governance’s
- Video: Apurimac, Peru
- Toolkits: Municipal Good Governance Toolkits
- Video (Spanish): Municipio al día: La gestión municipal en un clic
Case Studies
- IFC Helps Mining Companies Manage South Gobi Water Challenges
- Promoting Local Mining Suppliers in Guinea
- Local Benefit Sharing in Large-Scale Wind and Solar Projects
- Capturing Hydropower’s Promise: Report Series
- Social KPIs Matter: Setting Robust Indicators for Sustainability-Linked Finance
- Establishing Foundations to deliver Community Investment
- Strategic Community Investment (SCI): A Good Practice Handbook for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets
- A Guide to Getting Started in Local Procurement: For companies seeking the benefits of linkages with local SMEs
Latest Guidance and Materials
Multimedia Project: Connected Communities
Toolkit: Engineering Inclusivity: IFC Gender & Infrastructure
