Handling concerns

Enviromine

ICMM tackles the issue of local community grievances

Publishing Date: 05 Nov 2009 10:46am GMT
Author: Mining Environmental Management

Corporate Social Responsibility CSR

In its latest guidelines, ICMM tackles the issue of local community grievances and offers member companies a set of practical guidelines to apply on-the-ground over the next 12 to 18 months.

The guidance sets out how mining companies can develop robust, credible and trustworthy procedures through which local communities can raise concerns relating to an individual operation.

The publication goes hand in hand with ICMM’s recent publication on human rights and draws on work by the UN.

“It is important to accept that grievances, in common with other community concerns, cannot always be avoided,” the ICMM said in the guidance, but adds that grievances can be as much a result of incorrect perceptions as actual problems.

The guidance aims to provide companies with the information to develop complaints mechanisms both at the operational and corporate headquarter level to successfully address local community concerns.