THE WORLD SUMMIT on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg clearly identified the corporate sector as one of the key actors in the delivery of national and international poverty reduction targets in developing countries. ‘Partnerships’ between government, civil society and business were proposed as one means whereby these poverty reduction targets were to be achieved. Despite the rhetoric, there was less consideration of how such partnerships could work in practice, the outcomes that could be achieved, or the relative merits of partnerships over other, more traditional approaches to development.

This book is about partnerships between the private sector, government and civil society. Its objective is to share practical experiences in establishing and implementing such partnerships and to show how partnerships work. The focus is on the oil, gas and mining industries, as these sectors have tended to be the primary drivers of foreign investment in developing countries. These corporations increasingly operate in regions characterised by poor communities and fragile environments. The more effective use of external relationships to ensure the effective contribution of these investments to poverty reduction and local environmental management is critical, for the companies, for government, and for the poor.

Putting Partnerships to Work is based on the work of the Secretariat of the Natural Resources Cluster (NRC) of Business Partners for Development (BPD). This major research programme, which ran from 1998 to 2002, aimed to enhance the role of oil, gas and mining corporations in international development. The programme objective was to produce practical guidance, based on the experience of specific natural resource operations around the world, on how partnerships involving companies, government authorities and civil-society organisations can be an effective means of reducing investment risks and of promoting community and regional development. The programme encompassed partnerships in Colombia, Nigeria, India, Venezuela, Bolivia, Zambia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia and Tanzania. The specific projects that were implemented included not only ‘traditional’ development projects such as the provision of water, healthcare or infrastructure but also themes as diverse as conflict prevention, regional development, micro-enterprise development and managing oil spill compensation. Based on the experience of establishing and implementing effective partnerships, the NRC identified good practice, and developed replicable guidelines, tools and training materials.

This book is not only about good practice; it presents both the positive outcomes and lessons from the programme, as well as the risks and costs, and where things went wrong. It also provides evidence not only of the viability of partnerships (i.e. that partnerships ‘can work’) but also evidence that partnership approaches can provide substantially better outcomes for all parties than can more traditional approaches to development or corporate social responsibility. For example, a road in India was constructed at 25% of the cost to government; it took just 11 months for a community health centre in Venezuela to become operational and with its long-term financial future assured; and primary education enrolment rates in the vicinity of a gold mine in Tanzania have jumped from a historic level of 60–80% to almost 100% (as a consequence of improved infrastructure and community awareness of the importance of education).

These development and public-sector benefits have been accompanied by substantial business benefits, including significant reductions in the cost of community development initiatives and/or the leverage of additional resources, greater sustainability and viability of development projects and significant improvements to corporate reputation and their local ‘social licence to operate’ with communities. The book argues that to achieve these benefits requires all parties to invest time and effort in first exploring the best design for the partnership, understanding the motivations of their potential partners and, once the partnership has been established, continuing to actively support the partnership and ensure its ongoing viability.

Partnerships that engage the strengths of companies, government and civil society can, under the right conditions, yield better (and more sustainable) results for communities and for business than traditional approaches to development. The authors argue that, because it is built on the central idea of each partner ‘doing what they do best’, the partnership approach offers an opportunity to rethink the way in which companies view they contributions to the livelihoods of local communities. Through partnerships it is possible that community development will be seen less as an ‘add-on’ or ‘cost’ to the company but more an integral part of business strategy providing significant commercial and other benefits.

Perhaps most importantly, partnerships offer the potential for regional operating companies to change the perceptions of government and of civil society that the company will take the primary responsibility for local development. Rather, partnerships enable companies to locate themselves as one of (but not the only) agent of development in the local region. Partnerships enable communities to take charge of their own development needs, interacting with government to jointly design and maintain public services. They also allow government to play its proper role of fulfilling its public mandate, delivering necessary services and ensuring the quality and sustainability of development impacts.

The challenges of poverty reduction in the developing world are so great that no one sector can address them on its own. Partnerships between business, government and civil society are a means of addressing this most fundamental of truths. It is hoped that this book will provide a road map for all those working towards making the elimination of poverty a reality.


Back to the Top

Contents

Preface
Michael Warner and Rory Sullivan

1. Introduction
Rory Sullivan and Michael Warner

2. Building Blocks for Partnerships
Michael Warner


PART 1: CASE STUDIES

3. Shell Petroleum Development Corporation, Nigeria: Partnering and Environmental Impact Assessment
Rory Sullivan and Michael Warner

4. Integrated Coal Mining Limited, India: Livelihood Assessment, Road Construction and Healthcare
Rory Sullivan, Santiago Porto and Michael Warner, with Amit Mukherjee, Rajat Das and Joydev Mazumdar

5. Placer Dome and Corporación Venezolana de Guyana (Minera Las Cristinas CA, Venezuela): Healthcare Partnership
James Tull, Edgardo Garcia Larralde, Alex Mansutti and Santiago Porto, with Nicola Acutt, Ralph Hamann and Michael Warner

6. Transredes, Bolivia: Managing Oil-spill Compensation
Vicky Copeman and Enrique Rivas

7. BP and Others, Azerbaijan: Conflict Prevention
Nick Killick

8. Kahama Mining Corporation Limited, Tanzania: Social Development Programme
Rory Sullivan, with Aida Kiangi

9. Konkola Copper Mines plc, Zambia: Local Business Development and Partnerships
Rory Sullivan

10. Kelian Equatorial Mining, Indonesia: Mine Closure
Ralph Hamann

11. BP Exploration Company: Contributing to Long-term Regional Development in Casanare, Colombia
Michael Warner, Edgardo Garcia Larralde and Rory Sullivan


PART 2: PARTNERSHIP TOOLS

12. Getting Started
Michael Warner

13. Partnership Monitoring
Michael Warner

14. Measuring the Added Value of Partnerships
Jol Mitchell, Jill Shakleman and Michael Warner


PART 3: ISSUES

15. Towards Evidence of the Costs and Benefits of Partnerships
Nicola Acutt with Ralph Hamann, Assheton Carter and Paul Kapelus

16. Ownership and Control of Outcomes
Aidan Davy

17. Companies in Conflict Situations: A Role for Partnerships?
Aidan Davy

18. Partnerships and Local Corporate Foundations
Ralph Hamann, with Nicola Acutt and Assheton Carter

19. Managing Community Expectations through Partnerships
Aidan Davy

20. Learning from Project Partnering in the Construction Industry
Dom Verschoyle and Michael Warner


PART 4: CONCLUSIONS

21. Conclusions
Rory Sullivan and Michael Warner


Appendix A: Example of a Grievance-resolution Process
Appendix B: Example of a Partnership Memorandum of Understanding: the Sarshatali Coal Mining Project Partnership for the Construction of a Metalled Link Road from Rasunpur Forest Area to Barabani Railway Yard
Appendix C: Example of a Partnership Charter: Charter of the Kelian Mine Closure Steering Committee
Appendix D: Checklists of Impact Indicators
Appendix E: Examples of Impact Tables: The Tri-sector Healthcare Partnership, Las Cristinas Gold Mine, Venezuela, December 1999 to January 2001
Appendix F: Publications of the Natural Resource Cluster

Back to the top

---

About the editors

Dr Michael Warner is a Research Fellow with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London. For three years he managed the Secretariat of the Natural Resources Cluster (covering the oil, gas and mining sectors) for the World Bank’s Business Partners for Development programme. In this role he acted as the broker or advisor of multi-sector partnerships involving RPG in India, Shell in Nigeria, BP in Colombia, Anglo American in Zambia and Placer Dome in Venezuela. Michael has a PhD in Environmental Management from Imperial College, University of London and worked for a number of years in developing countries as a consultant with Environmental Resources Management, London. In the mid-1990s he joined the ODI, specialising in the adaptation of interest-based negotiation to resolve disputes and develop partnerships between communities, business, governments and NGOs. He now manages a new programme at ODI to improve the social and economic performance of corporate investment in developing countries. Michael is the author of Complex Problems ... Negotiated Solutions (ITDG Publishing, 2001) and of a novella on the art of partnership broking, The New Broker: Brokering Partnerships for Development (ODI, 2003). He is also Director of the consultancy company Sustainable Negotiation Services International (SNSi) Limited.

Dr Rory Sullivan has been Director, Investor Responsibility with Insight Investment (the asset management arm of HBOS plc) since October 2002. In this role, he is responsible for leading Insight’s engagement activities relating to climate change, human rights, and corporate social responsibility. He also contributes to Insight’s broader work on corporate governance. Rory has 15 years’ experience in environmental management and public policy, having worked for the private sector and government agencies in Australia, South-East Asia, Africa and Europe. His experience includes evaluating development-focused partnerships (health, education, water) on behalf of the World Bank’s Business Partners for Development programme, advising Environment Australia and the OECD on the design of pollution release and transfer registers, and assisting public- and private-sector organisations with the implementation of environmental and risk management systems. Rory is the author (with Hugh Wyndham) of Effective Environmental Management: Principles and Case Studies (Allen & Unwin, 2001), and the editor of Business and Human Rights: Dilemmas and Solutions (Greenleaf Publishing, 2003). He has written over 100 articles, book chapters and papers on human rights, environmental policy and development issues. Rory holds a first-class honours degree in electrical engineering (University College Cork, Ireland), masters’ degrees in Environmental Science (University of Manchester, UK) and Environmental Law (University of Sydney, Australia), and a PhD in Law (Queen Mary, University of London, UK).