This 'course' is a one unit of a Masters program (5EC). It comprises 2 hrs per week of contact for 8 weeks. Additional reading and assessment is required. For more information, contact Prof Frank Vanclay at frank.vanclay@rug.nl

Measuring what matters: monitoring and evaluating the social performance of mining projects Leading companies are now taking a more strategic approach to managing community impacts and there is a greater focus on delivering sustainable socio-economic benefits to communities and regions. However, most mining projects still have only a very limited capacity to monitor and assess their impacts on an ongoing basis and to evaluate what return they are getting on their social investments. This makes it difficult for mining companies to demonstrate to external stakeholders that they are adding economic and social value. Inadequate attention to monitoring also means that companies often lack critical information on whether social programs they manage or fund are delivering the desired outcomes. In the community development field, it is now routine for programs and projects to be monitored and evaluated. This workshop will draw on experiences from this field, as well as work that the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining has undertaken within the mining sector, to provide practical guidance to practitioners and managers on how they monitoring and evaluation capability of their organisations can be strengthened.

Este curso permitirá compartir la experiencia desarrollada en Chile por Fundación Casa de la Paz, con el trabajo desarrollado por profesionales y ejecutivos de empresas mineras con presencia en el contexto latinoamericano y global, de manera de plantear aprendizajes y condiciones favorables para la prevención y transformación de conflictos socio ambientales susceptibles de replicar en el marco de realidades socioculturales diversas a la nuestra. Este curso entregarar a los participantes un sustento conceptual, metodológico y práctico para la aplicación de herramientas de prevención y transformación de conflictos en oportunidades de desarrollo social y valor compartido.

The participants in this course will take away tools and experiences to help analyze their current economic development work, and develop new opportunities with communities. By fostering truly sustainable economic development, professionals and companies will forge stronger trust bonds with communities of interest, thus enhancing their social license to operate.

This two day course will draw upon ten years of Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO) experience developing collaborative approaches to address and resolve complaints received from communities. The course will share experiences from over 40 private sector investments in 28 countries worldwide. Although the complaints span multiple sectors (including mining, oil and gas, agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure), material presented will be tailored to those concerns that arise in the mining sector, and complaints related to mining projects will be highlighted. The course is targeted toward companies, public sector institutions and civil society organizations interested in learning about how collaborative processes can help prevent, resolve and move beyond environmental and social conflict in mining. Individuals working in community relations (because they are the first line of interaction with the public) as well as in technical areas (because they are often responsible for the activities that result in community concerns) will be interested in learning the skills offered in this course.