Proactive, open and honest relations with its neighbours are of key importance both to the GeoPark’s ethos and to smooth operations, and a key part of GeoPark’s community engagement strategy is its Cuentame grievance mechanism. Meaning ‘Tell me About It’ in Spanish, Cuentame has a network of local offices, supported by telephone hotlines and email contact to engage with local communities in 10 of GeoPark’s blocks in Colombia and Ecuador.
Neighbours are invited and encouraged to ask questions, raise complaints and seek redress on any matter, which GeoPark investigates and responds to through a process validated and enhanced by independent Human Rights specialists. The system is confidential and efficient (replies are given within 2 weeks) and its effectiveness is shown not only in data – 476 of the 511 grievances received in 2022 were resolved; a success rate of over 93% and an all-time Cuentame record – but also in bringing the company closer to its neighbours and giving real and tangible evidence that all people matter, and the company listens.
The social license that Cuentame helps to create is critically important to meeting the highest global standards in sustainability, transparency and Human Rights practices and policies to which GeoPark strictly adheres, and supports the company in its existing areas of operation and the new areas it moves into.