- Some stakeholders (internal or external) may view stakeholder engagement as an opportunity for ‘public speaking’. Through the right facilitation by community liaison officers or relevant practitioners (e.g. creating speaking time and opening conversations to the less heard), conversations can be directed onto pathways that are beneficial to all parties involved.
- Investing resources into understanding the local community at the commencement of a project, via development of a project-specific social baseline, will help determine whether there are underlying issues that need to be accounted for as part of a stakeholder engagement program. It can also be used to provide the basis for ongoing social monitoring programs, KPI development and social investment strategies.
Project background/scenario
An oil and gas company undertook the development of an onshore/offshore gas project within a country with a medium/high human rights risk rating, and with stringent regulatory stakeholder engagement requirements.
In undertaking the project, the company planned for surrounding communities to be engaged throughout the various phases of the project life cycle and provided them with opportunities to be involved in project design and ongoing impact management. The company assessed community related risks, developed a project specific baseline and identified and mapped stakeholders who may be affected by the project.
Undertaking the initial social risk assessment enabled the company’s community liaison team to develop a proper understanding of existing issues pervading the surrounding communities and subsequently conduct a stakeholder engagement programme tailored to each identified community. This engagement programme included regular (monthly) community meetings facilitated by community liaison officers (CLO), as well as meetings with the social performance (CLO) coordinators for the project contractor. The process and outcomes of the stakeholder engagement programme demonstrated to the regulator that the company had engaged with all relevant and potentially impacted communities and stakeholders, and that concerns/feedback relating to the project were meaningfully taken into consideration.
As the project transitioned into construction, the project- specific social baseline was used by the company as the basis to manage and monitor community related impacts. The monitoring and tracking of actions and outcomes is followed up through a dashboard which tracks various aspects of engagement, including the number of complaints specific to livelihood restoration, as well as overall ‘community satisfaction’ scores.
How engagement was made meaningful
In this case study, engagement was made meaningful through the following:
- Principle 1 – stakeholder engagement was designed with a solutions-focused mindset with the company seeking to ensure that all surrounding communities were provided the opportunity to input into the design as well as social impact management.
- Principle 2 – the company developed an understanding of existing issues prevalent within the surrounding communities, and therefore could tailor a stakeholder engagement programme that met the needs/requirements of stakeholders.
- Principle 6 – the company not only considered feedback provided in relation to the project to optimise its design, but also monitored various aspects of engagement to better understand and manage any stakeholder concerns during operation.