Social and Stakeholder Engagement

Our Expertise

• Social Baseline Studies

  We design, implement and manage baseline studies to enable our clients to understand the socio-economic, health and human rights context in which they operate. A wide range of techniques, including desktop reviews, site visits, household surveys, field studies, focus group discussions and key informant interviews enable us to build a comprehensive picture of the local environment.

• Stakeholder Engagement

  Well planned and executed engagement with communities and other stakeholders can significantly shorten the time it takes for a project to be implemented, improve project outcomes and help projects become socially sustainable. Our aim is to help our clients identify, understand, and manage the requirements, concerns and aspirations of those who have influence over, or are influenced by the project – be they regulators, project sponsors, lenders to the project, civil society and NGOs, or local communities. We use a range of engagement techniques, including household surveys, focus groups, key informant interviews, participatory rural appraisal and public meetings.

• Land Access, Resettlement and Livelihood Restoration

  When an individual or community experiences temporary or permanent involuntary loss of land, structures or access to productive assets, the implications are complex and far-reaching. We work closely with our clients to identify, assess, manage and monitor the social effects of land access and resettlement to achieve a positive outcome for affected people, clients and stakeholders.

  Projects that require land access, resettlement and livelihood restoration services are often complex in nature and need sensitive management. We help our clients overcome a multitude of challenges, including complex tenure systems, conflicting politics and differences between international good practice and national requirements.

• Social Management Plans

  Our experts work closely with our clients to develop practical social mitigation plans, including social monitoring and evaluation plans, resettlement action plans, influx management plans, community development plans and livelihood restoration plans, local recruitment plans and indigenous peoples plans.

  Our team is experienced in the design and implementation of grievance management systems, providing a formal mechanism to investigate and redress concerns.

• Ecosystem Services

  We are experienced at delivering ecosystem services impact assessment in alignment with legislative requirements, lender compliance and international best practice. We offer an integrated approach to environmental and social impact assessments, standalone socio-economic assessments and reviews of existing impact assessments for quality assurance and compliance.

• Social Investment

  Strategic social investment aligns the company approach with the long and short term development objectives of local community, civil society and government. Through working in partnership with other stakeholders, companies can deliver sustainable, measurable development outcomes. Our specialists have both designed and implemented multi-million dollar social investment programmes and understand the complexity of managing such multi-faceted initiatives.

• Capacity Building

  We provide bespoke training and mentoring in implementing social mitigation commitments, grievance procedures, social surveying and monitoring techniques, health and safety in the field, GIS tools and data management and interpretation, with the aim of building our clients’ in-house capabilities to support post-permitting commitments and minimise their ongoing consultancy costs.