Challenges in implementing the corporate responsibility to respect human rights in the context of project-induced displacement and resettlement

Hanna

2019

Land

108

122

To gain a social license to operate and grow, companies should have effective community engagement activities, social impact assessment processes, environmental and social impact management procedures, and human rights-compatible grievance redress mechanisms in place. In this way, environmental impacts and social impacts would likely be identified and addressed before issues escalate and social risk amplifies. Companies also need to treat communities with respect and be mindful of local culture. Where these things are not done, there will be no social license to operate. Protests are mechanisms by which affected communities express their concerns and signal there is no social license. As argued in our previous work on conceptualizing social protests, protests are warning signs, as well as opportunities for companies to improve. Rather than let protest actions escalate, leading to violent confrontation and considerable cost and harm, companies should engage in meaningful dialogue with protesters. Unfortunately, company response is often inadequate or inappropriate. In this paper, we identify around 175 actions companies might take in relation to community protest, and we discuss how these actions variously have the potential to escalate or de-escalate conflict, depending on whether the company engages in appropriate and genuine interaction with protesters or if repressive measures are used. While effective engagement will likely de-escalate conflict, ignoring or repressing protests tends to provoke stronger reactions from groups seeking to have their concerns heard. When companies address community concerns early, their social license to operate is enhanced. We also outline the primary international standards companies are expected to comply with, and we identify the key environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG principles) that should be respected.proactively undertake actions to address the issues of concern and reduce the likelihood of protest. In this paper, we examine the wide range of reactive and proactive actions companies might take in relation to community protest, and we reflect on how these actions might affect the level of conflict with their host communities and the company's and project's social license to operate.Companies need to consider their actions and reactions carefully. If company reaction leads to escalation, this increases the amount of community protest and/or changes the type of protest action, which could lead to harmful outcomes to the company and community. Furthermore, communities and individuals have rights, and should companies use repressive actions, companies run the risk of violating the rights of local people, which could lead to reputational harm and legal action against the company well into the future [5][6][7]. The many legal actions the oil company, Shell, has had to face because of its actions (and inaction) in Nigeria in the 1990s is proof of this [8]. The negative publicity surrounding conflict can be harmful to the company's reputation and social license to op...

Section: Conclusion: Getting a Social License Requires Taking Communmentioning

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Section: Introductionmentioning

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See 1 more Smart Citation

Conceptualizing Company Response to Community Protest: Principles to Achieve a Social License to Operate

Hanna

2019

Land

108

122

“…There is limited knowledge by oil palm companies about how to contribute to the development of sustainable communities or how to deal with the challenges in implementing SSCD. The lack of research about community development in oil palm reflects a general trend that the company perspective has been insufficiently considered in academic literature [68].…”

Section: Issues Associated With Oil Palm and Industrial Timber Plantamentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges to Implementing Socially-Sustainable Community Development in Oil Palm and Forestry Operations in Indonesia

Pasaribu

Zhao

2020

Land

Self Cite

Through the lenses of community development and social licence to operate, we consider the complex relationships between local communities and forest plantation and oil palm companies. We examine the practical challenges in implementing socially-sustainable community development (SSCD) by analyzing two corporate social investment community development projects located in West Kalimantan, Indonesia: Desa Makmur Peduli Api (integrated fire management) and Pertanian Ekologi Terpadu (ecological farming). Our study scrutinized: (i) What were the practice challenges faced by the companies in establishing SSCD?; Along with (ii) what should be done to improve how SSCD is undertaken, especially in Indonesia? We identified five challenges: (1) unresolved land conflict; (2) determining the right program; (3) building community capacity rather than providing irrelevant training; (4) a shortage of company field staff and government facilitators; and (5) managing community expectations. Better governance of SSCD will reduce conflict between affected communities and companies.

“…One expectation of the UNGP is that all companies, projects and major activities (including any impact assessment and resettlement process) should have a grievance redress mechanism. Research undertaken for the development of the UNGP and other research have revealed that situations where companies deliberately intend to harm communities are rare, however harm frequently happens as a result of neglect, ignorance or a lack of proper consideration of social issues by companies (van der Ploeg and Vanclay 2018). It is argued that, if projects have installed effective feedback procedures (grievance redress mechanisms) and act in response to such feedback, many issues could be resolved before they escalate (United Nations 2011; van der Ploeg and Vanclay 2017;Vanclay and Hanna 2019).…”

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Reflections on Social Impact Assessment in the 21^st century

Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal

2019

Self Cite

101

Social impact assessment (SIA) is a field of research and practice that addresses everything associated with managing social issues throughout the project lifecycle (pre-conception to post-closure). SIA has transformed from a regulatory tool to being the process of managing a project's social issues used by developers, financiers, affected communities and environmental licencing agencies. SIA considers: benefit sharing, boom-and-bust cycles, community development, community engagement, community resilience, cultural heritage, due diligence, empowerment, gender issues, grievance redress mechanisms, human rights, Impacts and Benefits Agreements, Indigenous peoples, in-migration (influx, honeypot), livelihood restoration, local content, local procurement, project induced displacement and resettlement, psychosocial impacts, social closure, social function, Social Impact Management Plans, social inclusion, social investment, social licence to operate, social performance, stakeholder engagement, vulnerable groups, and traditional issues such as identifying social impacts and designing mitigation. SIA has learnt much over 50 years, however complex issues remain including involuntary resettlement, restoring livelihoods, place attachment, sense of place, maintaining intangible cultural heritage, and finding replacement land. Corruption, rent seeking, elite capture, speculation and opportunist behaviour are also problematic. ARTICLE HISTORY