60 MINS AT THE AAMEG CELTIC CLUB SUNDOWNER 27 th OCTOBER 2016 Taking advantage of the Sustainable Development Goals Robin Budden Sustainable Development has been with us for a long, long time. It is close to 30 years – 1987 to be precise - since the term sustainable development was coined. I am sure you know th e one “ meeting the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future.” Talk about bold ambition! It became the catalyst for new thinking around ways to meet the challenge of balancing economic growth, environmental protection and social equality. The mining industry wasn’t sitting on its hands while all this was happening – it was very much engaged in the process, developing its own call to action in response to the new development paradigm through the Global Mining Initiative and the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development Project (MMSD) and summarised in its report “Breaking New Ground”. We, as in the mining industry, even coined the term Social License to Operate way back in 1997. The Millennium Development Goals (or MDGs as they were known), EITI, GRI, the VPs, IFC Performance Standards, Equator Principles and the ICMM all emerged around the turn of the new century, while Shared Value is a relative latecomer, first appearing in 2011. We ’ve also seen some convergence in the language used by the development world and the mining industry (and business more generally) and, with the MDGs, the first steps towards an explicit set of human development targets. From the reading I have been doing, there is certainly acknowledgement that the scorecard for the MDGs for the 55 countries in Africa shows a distinctly mixed set of results but it is not all doom and gloom. Coming off a low base, Africa has pretty much achieved 3 of the 8 goals – access to universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women and combating HIV/AIDs and other diseases but major challenges remain, in particular addressing the issues of poverty, extreme hunger and inequality. Now we’re heading into the future with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Three years in the making, building on +20 years of trial and error experience and signed-off by all 193 UN member states in September 2015 before kicking-off on January 1st this year, the SDG are a set of 17 individual goals and 169 specific targets that seek to address a wide range of development issues. Member states are expected to use the goals to frame their development agendas and while the goals are voluntary, there can be no doubt that they will occupy a 1 robin@socialaspects solutions .com www.socialaspectssolutions.com
position in the minds of government, civil society and business, all of which are expected to play a part in delivering on the goals. Something that I have found a little surprising has been the speed and the breadth of the uptake although, on reflection, given they have been 30 years in the making maybe it shouldn’t be quite such a shock. Or maybe it is that a population of 8 billion and rising in a world that is rapidly getting warmer is ringing some alarm bells. Or maybe (and this is the sceptic in me talking) it is that promises are easy to make and much harder to keep. Whatever the reason(s), lots of people are talking about the goals. DFAT sees the SDGs helping Australia advocate for a strong focus on economic growth and development in the Indo-Pacific region, and in promoting investment priorities including gender equality, governance and strengthening tax systems. (Bit of a worry that Africa doesn’t crack a mention – more work for Trish I guess) The Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) devoted a session at their annual convention in February to discussion of the SDGs which was hosted by The Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainability. 27 of the 55 IGF members are from Africa (8 of these are Associate Members of AAMEG) while Canada and Germany are both prominent members and supporters (and both are active in providing development assistance in Africa and Canada is also a competitor on the ground). The IGF is finalising a comparative study of its Mining Policy Framework against the SDGs which will be published very soon. More broadly, African countries have been developing their priorities for the SDGs which show some variation north to south and east to west. Sierra Leone and Liberia are already publicly on board with the SDGs as a path to development and stability post-Ebola. And while the organisation behind the Africa Mining Vision haven’t put pen to paper yet I would be surprised if we didn’t see a statement of some kind in the not too distant future. Globally, within the wider business community Shared Value is embracing the SDGs, while closer to home just last month we’ve had the CEOs of 30 of Australia’s leading companies sign -up as supporters of the SDGs. And last but most certainly not least, the mining industry response has been through the ICMM which has started to carve out a space, linking the SDG to their existing SD Principles. But what is good (and doable) for the big boys is not necessarily the same for smaller players. Which brings me nicely to the topic for the rest of our time together – what makes sense for us? I’ve had the idea for some few months now that there has to be a way (or ways) for small and medium sized explorers and operators, the typical AAMEG member, to contribute to the goals and just as importantly to be recognised for what they do, to the extent that shorter life-cycles, smaller physical, environmental, social and economic footprints, leaner management structure and lesser lobbying strength allow. So I’ve been digging away, looking for ideas to borrow and tweak. As I mentioned earlier, the ICMM has been quick out of the blocks, mapping the SDGs to their 10 SD Principles. Another good source has been a think-tank report (CCSI/UNDP/WEF/SDSN) the final version of which was published just 3 months ago. Both have been useful but they definitely reflect the big-end of town. 2 robin@socialaspects solutions .com www.socialaspectssolutions.com
Where I have ended up is mapping the 17 goals against the 11 social aspects described in last year’s AAMEG Social Aspects Management Handbook, trimming the number of targets from 169 to 40 and focussing on company activities and the people and the communities within mine impact area. By doing this I’ve brought the global agenda down to something that I think is achievable at a local, site- based level. Going through the process it was very satisfying to see that the advice in the Handbook stacks up very well when viewed through an SDG lens. As I’ve been preparing for today I’ve come to appreciate the overlaps and intersections with my own career – I graduated as an engineer in 1986, around the same time Sustainable Development came into being, worked in Australia for the best part of 20 years, blissfully unaware of the parallel universe of the development world, before landing in Ghana in 2005, working on a project slap bang in the middle of a cluster of rural villages, completely unprepared, just 3 years after the ICMM came into existence, working for one of the ICM M’s foundation members , the IFC Performance Standards fresh off the presses (which the company had committed to) and the MDGs 5 years old. Maybe this goes at least s ome of the way towards explaining why I’ve become hooked on the whole community relations / social aspects side of things. But I digress. The first point to make is that what I am talking about is voluntary – there is absolutely no obligation for you to do any of this. You can choose to ignore it all and keep doing things the way you always have. The second point is that it is not an all or nothing proposition. You don’t have to try and address all 40 targets. In point of fact I would suggest that you don’t (try for all 40 that is). Instead, choose to focus on the 1, 5, 10, or however many make sense for your company and your situation. There is also nothing to say you can’t do your own filtering exercise, going back to the 169 and going through the process of picking and choosing the ones you want to focus on. If anyone does want to head off this way, come and see me afterwards or you can track them down on the UNDP website. What this is about is finding the sweet spot(s) where there is overlap between your business drivers, the SDG targets and local development needs (which are typically identified through consultation, ESIA, PRA) and where there is overlap you decide how much time, effort and resources you want to or can afford to put in. It is about hitting the bullseye. So let’s look at a few sweet spots and see what they look like, starting with health. Health and Safety is a given for most companies, impacts on health are often a concern for local communities and the 5 SDG targets for Good Health and Well-Being are a good fit with company priorities. 3 robin@socialaspects solutions .com www.socialaspectssolutions.com
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