Extractive Industry: Filling the Gaps

We talk of Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility and what the things are that we should and need to be doing with respect to Community Engagement. I was recently asked to evaluation an agenda for an upcoming event focused on Sustainability in the Extractives Sector and I took the Race Car Driver approach to my mini-evaluation. What I mean by this is I looked to see what wasn’t there rather than what the content was that was already there and in a very comprehensive manner I might add, as I read through the agenda, speakers list and the descriptive content. 

Warren Te Brugge presents at EUEC 2013, Phoenix Arizona

Vancouver, BC, January 28th, 2013 - Warren Te Brugge presents at EUEC 2013

Manzimvula joined the EUEC 2013, 16th Annual Energy, Utility and Environment Conference in Phoenix this week with over 2,000 attendees as CEO and Founder, Warren Te Brugge presented 'Creating the Mindset of Sustainability' in the conference Sustainability Projects track.

Indigenous People's Rights: The Need for Open Dialogue

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in a dialogue this fall hosted by the University of Arizona, Professor James Anaya, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Dr. Mary M. Poulton, Director of the Lowell Institute of Mineral Resources. There were a number of questions posted to the group of approximately 100 participants including; What are the processes and programs that can be put in place? What kind of initiatives do indigenous peoples themselves have? What is the knowledge of indigenous people's rights and experience in the industry? What is the accountability within the industry, relative to indigenous people's rights?

As I observed the interactions, listened to the presenters and participated in the discussions and break-out sessions It became clear to me that what was needed most was to broaden and increase the number of such dialogues to include more of the people from within communities and the people actively involved in the engagement process in order to improve and help develop the lives of the peoples being discussed. This may sound really elementary, but in fact, it is not what is taking place. Institutions, academia, government, and industry are represented and there are complex, intellectual conversations taking place, yet I fear the most fundamental, practical points are being missed as legal, political and rights positions are being discussed and debated in board- and meeting-rooms as well as battled out in courts, around the world.