Ipieca provides social practitioners with tools and guidance for engaging with communities in host countries and facilitates peer-learning between members on good practice and emerging issues. Working across the topics of Indigenous Peoples, local content and social investment, Ipieca supports members to effectively engage with local communities and contribute to the social and economic development of the areas in which they operate.


Community engagement and Indigenous Peoples

The oil and gas industry has a responsibility to respect communities and Indigenous Peoples in areas where it operates. Indigenous Peoples are distinct social groups that warrant special consideration, but oil and gas companies should consider all social groups and communities who are situated close to, and are impacted by, their operations. Ipieca provides social practitioners with tools and guidance for engaging with communities in host countries and facilitates peer-learning between members on good practice and emerging issues.

The oil and gas industry and Indigenous Peoples have been increasingly coming into contact with each other over the past few decades as the search for new oil and gas resources has led to more exploration and development in lands that Indigenous Peoples traditionally occupy or customarily use. Ipieca facilitates the sharing of member experiences on engaging with Indigenous Peoples and monitors policy and legal context, key issues such as Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and emerging good practices in relation to the oil and gas industry and its interaction with Indigenous People.

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Local content

Many companies and their host countries identify and target local content objectives as ways to create and share value from oil and gas developments.

Host countries may use local content as part of an industrial policy aimed at delivering benefits beyond the payment of royalties and taxes. Many oil and gas companies take a strategic approach to local content efforts in recognition of the wider business benefits of creating and sharing value between themselves, local communities and countries.

Ipieca helps the industry develop and implement robust local content strategies through the development of good practice guidance, facilitating information sharing between companies and engaging with stakeholders.

Ipieca also engages with external organizations developing work in this area, such as the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where Ipieca contributed to the development of the OECD Framework on Public-Private Collaboration for In-Country Shared Value Creation from Extractive Projects.

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Social investment

Many oil and gas companies have implemented social and community investment programmes in areas where they operate, with the aim of establishing and maintaining good relationships with local, regional and national stakeholders, and to enhance the company’s social impact.

However, despite companies’ best efforts and ongoing engagement, many social investment programmes fail to generate the sustainable benefits that companies hope for and may have unintended consequences. In addition, companies often find it difficult to define, quantify and measure the success of their social investments.

Ipieca works with the industry through workshops, good practice sharing and publications to help companies make successful and sustainable social investments.

Ipieca has also developed two internal awareness briefings on Social investment in skills building and enterprise development and Social investment as a risk mitigation tool published in 2019 (members only). These briefs highlight current trends and enable members to anticipate the trajectory along which social investment is headed.

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