Search Library

Traditional Occupations of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Labour Statstics

Resource Key: TWLHT87R

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Geneva

Institution: ILO

Date: August 2023

This paper aims to take this work forward by providing an overview of how traditional occupations are or could possibly be covered better in labour statistics, including options for a statistical definition and statistical indicators. An earlier draft of the paper was discussed in a consultation with indigenous experts in late 2021. The current version has benefited greatly from the insights and observations of these experts. It has been prepared to facilitate further consultations among indigenous peoples’ representatives and experts and among statistical experts from relevant national institutions and UN system entities. It seeks to provide a basis for further discussion and development of definitive and comprehensive guidance and supporting materials on the collection and compilation of statistics on traditional occupations and the preparation of future reports presenting data on indigenous peoples for use in particular by: 1) staff in national statistical offices and other research agencies who wish to compile statistics on indigenous populations and their occupations; 2) researchers preparing reports and studies on traditional occupations; and 3) representatives of indigenous and tribal peoples who want to understand the information available and help shape the development of information on traditional occupations.

A Guide to Assessing Needs: Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results

Resource Key: N3BJESNM

Document Type: Book

Creator:

Place: Washington D.C.

Date: 2012

This book will benefit people and teams involved in planning and decision making. On the basis of their pragmatic value in guiding decisions, needs assessments are used in various professions and settings—from emergency rooms to corporate boardrooms—to guide decision making. Nonetheless, although needs assessments have many different applications, we focus in this book on needs assessments as they are applied in organizations to accomplish results, as opposed to their use in personal decisions or medical triage. Needs assessments are conducted in many diverse organizations, from steel mills to financial services firms, and their tools can be applied in private sector businesses, government ministries, municipality agencies, local nonprofit institutions, and organizations of all varieties. However, through discussion and examples, this book more specifically focuses on how needs assessments are applied in relation to international development efforts in the public sector (for instance, reducing poverty, improving access to clean water, or addressing gender inequality). This context offers many realistic and pragmatic opportunities to illustrate how various needs assessment steps, tools, techniques, and guides can be used to collect valuable information, to make informed decisions, to achieve results, and to have a positive influence on the lives of people around the world. People who can benefit from needs assessments could be community leaders and policy makers who oversee decision-making processes andimplementation. Agency employees or contractors who design and implement projects can also benefit from building needs assessments into their routine planning processes. Monitoring and evaluation practitioners or auditors can use needs assessments to measure and track results. Community members and other project stakeholders can and should also be involved in needs assessment processes—typically as informants, but increasingly as joint decision makers with policy makers.

Implementing the ILO Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention No. 169: Towards an inclusive, sustainable and just future

Resource Key: SIBVX4LB

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Switzerland

Institution: ILO

Date: 2020

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with its pledge to leave no one behind, offers a unique opportunity to strengthen global efforts in tackling the socio-economic vulnerabilities confronting indigenous peoples today. Since its foundation, the ILO has played a key role in promoting the rights of indigenous peoples and improving their socio-economic situation, notably through the rights-based framework of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention (No. 169). Convention No. 169 marked its 30th anniversary in 2019 along with the Centenary of the ILO. It is the only international treaty open for ratification with specific provisions for the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples. It sets out a clear vision and provides specific guidance for the realization of these rights while advancing sustainable development rooted in the aspirations of indigenous women and men.While considerable progress has been made towards addressing the concerns of indigenous peoples, it has been too slow. Several knowledge gaps persist in understanding their social and economic situation. A first step to accelerate the pace of inclusive and sustainable development is to overcome the “invisibility” faced by indigenous women and men in official data and research. This report sets out to address this invisibility and shed light on the situation indigenous women and men find themselves today. At the same time, zooming into the world of work, which is a critical site for understanding the socio-economic realities of indigenous peoples. In so doing, this report engages with two key aspects shaping the lives and prospects of indigenous womenand men – inequalities relative to mainstream society as well as social, cultural, economic and environmental transformations.

A Guide to a New Grievance Mechanism for the Mining Industry, with Emphasis on Chinese Corporations

Resource Key: AW2NAVCU

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Institution: Accountability Counsel & Inclusive Development International

Date: June 2023

As of May 2023, people impacted by the mining industry have a new forum to raise environmental and social concerns. The new mechanism, called the Mediation and Consultation Mechanism for the Mining Industry and Mineral Value Chain, is also the first grievance mechanism applicable to many Chinese corporations engaged in the mining and mineral value chain. A person, community, organization, or company can file an application alleging that any actor in the mining and mineral value chain has not complid with international environmental and social standards and seek redress for negative impacts. The Mediation and Consultation Mechanism was established by industry associations and is voluntary and consensus based, without a compliance review function. It does not have the power to require any party to participate in the process or enforce any agreement by the concerned parties. This guide is designed to help explain the Mechanism’s procedures for individuals and communities harmed by corporate behavior.

OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct

Resource Key: SMDYSVYQ

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Paris

Institution: OECD

Date: 2023

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct (the Guidelines) are recommendations jointly addressed by governments to multinational enterprises to enhance the business contribution to sustainable development and address adverse impacts associated with business activities on people, planet, and society. The Guidelinesare supported by a unique implementation mechanism, the National Contact Points for Responsible Business Conduct (NCPs), established by governments to further the effectiveness of the Guidelines. Since their introduction in 1976, the Guidelines have been continuously updated to remain fit for purpose in light of societal challenges and the evolving context for international business. The 2023 update reflects a decade of experience since their last review in 2011 and responds to urgent social, environmental, and technological priorities facing societies and businesses.

Qualitative Methods for the Next Generation of Impact Assessment

Resource Key: BHEDD2MB

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: August 2023

Many jurisdictions, including Canada under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), are moving into next-generation, sustainability-oriented impact assessment (IA) (Hacking & Guthrie, 2008; Gibson et al., 2016; Sinclair et al., 2018). Sustainability-oriented IA moves beyond a primary focus on biophysical impacts to consider a broader range of potential social, health and well-being, economic,cultural, cumulative, and equity implications of proposed projects. Canadian IA under the IAA (2019), for example, now explicitly requires consideration of health, social, and economic issues; consistent use of gender-based analysis plus (GBA+); evaluation of contributions to sustainability; bridging of Indigenous and Western scientific knowledge; and meaningful public participation. Quantitative methods are typically used to examine cause and effect associated with biophysical impacts and to identify, for example, alternatives and mitigation measures. Delivering effective IA within the broadening scope of next-generation, sustainability-oriented IA, however, requires new thinking and effective methods that enable meaningful inclusion of diverse knowledges,values, and information sources. For many of the broader range of impact sconsidered in next-generation, sustainability-oriented IA, cause and effect can only be established—and alternatives and mitigation measures suggested—through qualitative methods that can explain the values and connections people have with the places and land where projects are proposed. While this report is primarily intended for those involved in Canadian IA, the project was implemented by an international project team and informed by experts around the globe. Therefore, we anticipate this report will also be relevant to those working in a range of IA systems and geographical contexts. Specifically, this report may be of interest to: •practitioners working for/with communities and project proponents to gather the best possible information about the potential implications of proposed developments; • decision makers with a role in evaluating and synthesizing the information received throughout an IA process; • researchers who are testing, critiquing, and pushing the boundaries of IA processes and methods; • educators fostering the upcoming generations of IA professionals; • communities and members of the public who (should) play a role in selecting and implementing the methods that best tell their stories of place, change, and impact. There is considerable opportunity for the continued integration of qualitative methods in IA, but there are also barriers that often make it difficult to implement these methods in practice. While this report presents a range of conventional, innovative, and participatory qualitative methods (17 methods categories in total), it also discusses the barriers that must be overcome if these methods are to be effective in the context of sustainability-oriented IA.

Land at the Center of Inclusive and Sustainable Development. Volume 1: Land Administration and Management

Resource Key: U2BMITIB

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Washington D.C.

Institution: World Bank

Date: April 2023

This report focuses on Panel investigations of land administration and management projects in Honduras, Panama, and Cambodia. It explores some of the challenges of land tenure security, regularization, and titling and discusses the importance of assessing the context in which such activities are undertaken, and the challenges of stakeholder engagement associated with them. The Honduras and Panama cases offer significant lessons on the alienization of indigenous lands and territories, their regularization, and titling, as well as on the challenges relating to overlapping claims. The Cambodia example illustrates the complexity of regularization in an urban setting with high population density and vested economic interests. This report also presents supplementary information from Panel cases on projects that—while not designated land administration and management projects—nonetheless included relevant aspects of interest to the topic. These include two projects the Panel investigated in Kenya, which illustrate the importance of a comprehensive analysis to define project scope and timeline for land regularization activities and show challenges of securing communal land title for indigenous people in a timely manner. The report also references a project in Brazil, which touches on the complexity of land regularization and capacity requirements, but which the Panel did not investigate.

Managing Community Resettlement: Putting Livelihoods First

Resource Key: HW6QN8H4

Document Type: Book

Creator:

Place: Oxford

Date: 2023

Each year millions of people are displaced from their homes and lands. While international environmental and social performance standards on land access and involuntary resettlement exist, no framework supporting livelihood restoration has been developed. This book provides a framework that will help improve practice for those who are involved in resettlement projects and, crucially, improve the outcomes for the resettlement-affected households and communities. Evidence from the implementation of public- and private-sector-led resettlement projects indicates that livelihood restoration is a persistent shortcoming, if not failure, across these projects. This book addresses this issue by re-characterising the ‘livelihood restoration’ objective as ‘livelihood re-establishment and development’and proposes a framework for the entire resettlement process that puts livelihood considerations first. The framework enables proactive identification of the potential livelihood challenges associated with each step of the resettlement process (design, planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation), as well as the opportunities that resettlement, project development and induced economic growth create. This book is essential reading for experts in social impact assessment, resettlement specialists, planners, administrators, non-governmental and civil society organisations and students of development studies and social policy.

International Finance Corporation’s Guidance Notes: Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability

Resource Key: BH76V2BE

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Institution: IFC

Date: 1 January 2012

IFC has prepared a set of Guidance Notes, corresponding to the Performance Standards on
Environmental and Social Sustainability. These Guidance Notes offer helpful guidance on the
requirements contained in the Performance Standards, including reference materials, and on good sustainability practices to improve project performance. These Guidance Notes are not intended to establish policy by themselves; instead, they explain the requirements in the Performance Standards.

Mother Manual: Regenerated Freirean Literacy Through Empowering Community Techniques

Resource Key: BNUIL37F

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: London

Institution: Reflection Action

Date: 2012 [1996]

The purpose of this Mother Manual is to help you produce a Facilitator’s Manual adapted to the social, economic, political and cultural conditions in which you work. The Facilitators’ Manual is the core material for a Reflect programme. It has a sequence of ‘Units’ (perhaps 20 or 30). Each Unit in the facilitators’ manual outlines how the participants in a literacy circle can collectively construct a graphic (e.g. a map or matrix) which they can then ‘reflect’ upon, discuss and analyse. The facilitators’ manual gives clear guidelines on how to coordinate this process and how the facilitator can use the product of each Unit (e.g.a household map or crop matrix) for doing basic work on reading, writing and numeracy. In the three pilot programmes, the facilitators’ manuals were each prepared in rural areas on a portable computer by a small core group (of between four and eight people) working over three to four weeks. Most had not been seriously involved in literacy work before. The product in each case was very different. The facilitators’ manual for Usulutan in El Salvador for example, included land tenancy maps, displacement maps and matrices on human rights; in Uganda the manual included gender workload calendars, crop matrices and resource maps; and in contrast in Bangladesh the manual had a focus on numeracy, with income and expenditure calendars, projections of loan use and household decision-making matrices. The facilitators’ manual will be different for every different country, region or major cultural group. A manual for an urban area will be different from a manual for a rural area. Fishing communities will want to address different themes to pastoralists. Young people have different interests to older members of the community.

How do the pieces fit in the puzzle? Making sense of EU regulatory initiatives related to business and human rights

Resource Key: HE4R8N2Y

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Institution: Danish Institute for Human Rights

Date: June 2022

”
In recent years the European Union has introduced a range of regulatory initiatives which, in different ways, seek to address the impacts that businesses have on the enjoyment of human rights. These include initiatives on Corporate Sustainability Reporting, Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence, and Sustainable Finance, as well as trade rules and import/export restrictions. Each measure aims to ensure that businesses, financial institutions, and the economic system as such develop responsibly and contribute to sustainable development. Central to advancing both these aims is fostering respect for human rights by business and financial institutions. The measures, however, vary in the degree to which they align with human rights or business and human rights standards. Further, the measures approach their shared objective from slightly different angles, each potentially forming a “piece of the puzzle””. This briefing provides an overview of the various EU regulatory initiatives of relevance to business and human rights. Each section briefly: summarises the measure; notes the stage the measure is at in the legislative process; describes how the measure relates to business and human rights; and finally, considers
what piece the measure contributes to the broader puzzle. Each section is designed to be a standalone summary of each particular measure as it relates to business and human rights, and will be updated periodically to capture developments as the various legislative processes proceed.

Energy transition minerals and their intersection with land-connected peoples

Resource Key: 9IZ92BRB

Document Type: Journal Article

Creator:

Date: 2023

Rapidly transitioning the global energy system to renewables is considered necessary to combat climate change. Current estimates suggest that at least 30 energy transition minerals and metals (ETMs) form the material base for the energy transition. The inventory of ETMs indicates a high level of intersectionality with territories less impacted by the historic forces of industrialization. To identify the current global footprint, 5,097 ETM projects were geo-located against indicators for indigeneity, human modifcation of land, food production, water risk, confict, as well as capacity measures for project permitting, consultation and consent. Study results diferentiate ETMs to improve visibility over linkages between technology, resources and sustainability objectives. Our analysis reveals that more than half of the ETM resource base is located on or near the lands of Indigenous and peasant peoples, two groups whose rights to consultation and free prior informed consent are embedded in United Nations declarations.

Saying NO to development-forced displacement and resettlement: myths and alternatives

Resource Key: T6F87YUJ

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Coventry, UK

Institution: Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), Coventry University

Date: April 2023

For 50 years, mainstream development thinking has legitimised the displacement and resettlement of people for large-scale projects such as dams, infrastructure and wildlife conservation. But half a century of evidence shows, indisputably, that displacement causes social, economic and environmental harm, and that it cannot be mitigated by resettlement. Despite this evidence, estimates suggest that the number of people displaced for development has risen drastically in the last few decades, from 10 million a year in the 1990s to 20 million in the 2010s (Cernea and Maldonado, 2018). Resettlement continues to be the preferred solution to overlapping claims on land. The three authors of this brief have each been working in and researching development-forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR) for 15-20 years in different parts of the world. We come together to express our shared conclusion: displacement causes irreparable harm, and well-intended resettlement policies and practices perpetuate and justify further displacement. Decades of experience and research demonstrate that it is impossible to get large-scale resettlement right. New policies must prioritise human-scale development that does not require displacement.

Inclusive Language Guide

Resource Key: ELTNJPSG

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Oxford

Institution: Oxfam

Date: 13 March 2023

Language has the power to reinforce or deconstruct systems of power that maintain poverty, inequality and suffering. As we are making commitments to decolonization in practice, it is important that we do not forget the role of language and communications in the context of inequality. The Inclusive Language Guide is a resource to support people in our sector who have to communicate in English to think about how the way they write can subvert or inadvertently reinforce intersecting forms of inequality that we work to end. The language recommended is drawn from specialist organizations which provide advice on language preferred by marginalized people, groups and communities, and by our own staff and networks, to support us to make choices that respectfully reflect the way they wish to be referred to. We want to support everyone to feel empowered to be inclusive in their work, because equality isn’t equality if it isn’t for everyone.

Promoting Interoperability Across Environmental and Social Risk Management Frameworks: How the IFC Environmental and Social Performance Standards and World Bank Group Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines Align with the EU Taxonomy’s “Do No Significant Harm” and Minimum Safeguards Criteria

Resource Key: HYXLTWZA

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Washington D.C.

Institution: IFC

Date: 2023

New financial instruments designed to support climate, green economy,and social goals have taken various forms to reflect national or regionalpolicy priorities and regulatory frameworks since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015. However, the lack of clear, consistent, and credible information related to these instruments, as well as limitations in terms of the comparability and interoperability of different frameworks, risk hindering the achievement of sustainable development. To support the transition to a low-carbon economy, address information gaps, and reduce the risks of greenwashing, there has been growing recognition of the need to strengthen frameworks that effectively enable the transition. These imperatives have been driving the development of sustainable taxonomies around the world. Establishing eligibility criteria and setting requirements in terms of environmental and social (E&S) risk management and disclosures are common features of the taxonomies emerging in the market. Taxonomies involve a process for implementation with defined screening criteria, which often includes safeguards that intend for activities with a positive substantial contribution to an objective of the taxonomy to avoid negative impacts on other objectives. This principle, known as “do no significant harm” (DNSH), often complemented by “minimum safeguards”(MS) requirements, has been integrated into several national or regional taxonomies developed in the past years, including the European Union (EU) Taxonomy Regulation 2020/852. To support the implementation of sustainable taxonomies and leverage existing E&S risk management frameworks, financial institutions and other market participants subject to the EU Taxonomy, together with international networks and industry associations, have been calling for clarification of alignment between the EU Taxonomy requirements and pre-existing international standards. In response to these increasing demands, IFC has partnered with the Equator Principles Association to conduct this research, leveraging the combined expertise and experience of IFC as a standard-setter in E&S risk management and investor across emerging markets, and 138 Equator Principles Financial Institutions (EPFIs) operating globally. Over the past decades, the IFC E&S Performance Standards (PSs) and the World Bank Group (WBG) Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Guidelines, have provided guidance to companies and financial institutions on how to identify, assess, avoid, mitigate and manage E&S risks and impacts as a way of doing business in a sustainable way. The PSs and EHS Guidelines have influenced many E&S policies adopted by financial institutions – such as the Equator Principles which are used by EPFIs – and constitute an internationally recognized framework for E&S risk management, particularly for activities in emerging markets and developing economies. Companies and financial institutions have embedded these standards (PSs) and technical reference documents (EHS Guidelines) into their decision-making frameworks and have built significant experience and expertise over the years.This report examines the interoperability between the EU Taxonomy’s DNSH and MS criteria, on the one hand, and the PSs and EHS Guidelines, on the other, each of which, for the purpose of this analysis, are considered a “Framework.” The intention of this study is to establish whether and how compliance with the PSs and EHS Guidelines may satisfy the EU Taxonomy’s DNSH and MS criteria, with particular relevance to activities outside the EU, as the EU Taxonomy looks to expand its remit to emerging markets in the coming years with progressive requirements for non-EU entities to report on their taxonomy alignment.

ICMM Human Rights Due Diligence Guidance

Resource Key: DIV8ETT5

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: London

Institution: ICMM

Date: May 2023

Concerns around how the activities of companies impact upon people have long existed. Yet the corporate responsibility to respect human rights has only been clearly articulated and codified more recently. The United Nations Human Rights Council’s 2011 endorsement of the United NationsGuiding Principles on Business andHuman Rights (the UNGPs) was a significant milestone in a long journey. The UNGPs solidified the idea of a “corporate responsibility to respect”, as well as the practical application of this responsibility through ongoing “human rights due diligence” – a way companies can proactively manage potential and actual human rights impacts with which they are involved – making both increasingly prominent in how business is done. More than a decade has passed since the emergence of the UNGPs. While human rights commitments existed in a handful of company policies and industry standards prior to the UNGPs, these have become widespread since. The language of the UNGPs has been absorbed into a range of industry standards (see supporting resource on equivalency benchmark), including ICMM’s Mining Principles, and into an increasing number of laws (see HRDD Regulatory landscape resource). Since the emergence of the UNGPs, and their subsequent inclusion in the Mining Principles, there have been considerable developments in company commitments, culture, and approaches to the management of human rights risk. All ICMM members are required to introduce policy commitments to respect human rights and undertake human rights due diligence. Many members have begun to apply these commitments in practice, identifying and assessing actual and potential human rights impacts associated with business activities, and introducing measures for the management of such impacts. Each company has taken its own route in how it addresses those human rights most relevant to its activities. (See Figure 1 for key human rights issues for mining activities).

Grievance Mechanisms in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: Providing Effective Remedy for Human Rights Violations?

Resource Key: QQIV49IF

Document Type: Journal Article

Creator:

Date: February 2023

This article presents an empirical study of six grievance mechanisms in multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs). It argues that key characteristics of each grievance mechanism as well as the contexts in which they operate significantly affect human rights outcomes. However, even the most successful mechanisms only manage to produce remedies in particular types of cases and contexts. The research also finds that it is prohibitively difficult to determine whether ‘effective’ remedy has been achieved inindividual cases. Furthermore, the key intervention by the UN Guiding Principles on Business andHuman Rights (UNGPs), to prescribe a set of effectiveness criteria for designing or revising MSI grievance mechanisms, itself appears ineffective in stimulating better outcomes for rights-holders. Drawing on these findings, the article reflects on the future potential and limitations of MSI grievance mechanisms within broader struggles to ensure business respect for human rights.

Assessing the effectiveness of non-state-based grievance mechanisms in providing access to remedy for rightsholders: a case study of the roundtable on sustainable palm oil

Resource Key: X7I8RRCE

Document Type: Journal Article

Creator:

Date: 2021

This article explores different approaches to assessing the effectiveness of non-state-based non-judicial grievance mechanisms (NSBGMs) in achieving access to remedy for rightsholders. It queries the approach that has been widely adopted as a result of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which focuses on the procedural aspects of grievance mechanisms. Rather, it stresses the importance of analysing the outcomes of cases for rightsholders. This article tests this hypothesis by undertaking comprehensive empirical research into the complaint mechanism of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). RSPO is found to perform well when judged according to the UNGPs’ effectiveness criteria. However, it performs poorly when individual cases are assessed to ascertain the outcomes that are achieved for rightsholders. The article therefore argues for the importance of equivalent scrutiny of outcomes in relation to other NSBGMs and provides an approach and accompanying methodology that can be utilized for that purpose.

Initial Report on Research into the Effectiveness of MultiStakeholder Initiatives’ Human Rights Complaint Mechanisms

Resource Key: Y5SLP3W9

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Denver, Colorado

Institution: NomoGaia

Date: 2022

Pillar Three of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the“UNGPs”)provides that rightsholders should have access to remedie sfor human rights infringements arising from business activities. (UNGP25-31) Companies are required to establish or participate in these mechanisms. (UNGP 29) While governments have a role in access to remedy, so too do non-government mechanisms. Among these are complaint systems operated by multistakeholder initiatives (“MSIs,”See, e.g. UNGP 30). Research to date has not come close to answering the fundamental question of whether these complaint mechanisms provide effective remedies to rightsholders. If MSI grievance mechanisms do work, they should be multiplied and empowered. They could have an essential role in fulfilling Pillar Three. If they may work, or work sometimes and not others, then they should be improved or used only in situations in which they function adequately. If they do not and cannot work, efforts should go elsewhere, and claims of their effectiveness should not create a false impression of their importance. This Report presents an initial overview of our research into MSI grievance mechanisms. Its primary goal is to describe what we did and share what we found. This Report is not our detailed analysis of the data or an account of all our findings. That will come over time in a variety of forms: peer-reviewed academic publications, presentations, and additional NomoGaia reports. We welcome others to analyze our data and reach additional conclusions. We could not resist putting some, generally high-level, analysis in this Report. But the data are rich enough to support multiple levels of review, commentary, and analysis, and to lead to further research. This Report is a first step.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Grievance Mechanisms in Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: Policy Brief

Resource Key: D29BLDM7

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Warwick, UK

Institution: University of Warwick; NomoGaia

Date: April 2023

This briefing explores the potential of grievance mechanisms in multi-stakeholder initiatives to address the adverse impacts of corporate activity on workers and communities. It is based on a four year research project which examined grievance mechanisms in six MSIs. It finds that grievance mechanisms can provide significant benefits to workers and communities. But individual grievance mechanisms perform very differently from one another. At the same time a variety of serious problems currently undermine the value of of grievance mechanisms for workers and communities. The briefing therefore makes ten recommendations for how to enhance MSI grievance mechanisms in the future.

Social Sustainability in Development: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century

Resource Key: LFYPL7QK

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Washington D.C.

Institution: World Bank

Date: 15 March 2023

Main Messages:
1. Current crises—COVID-19, climate change, rising levels of conflict, and a global slowdown—are exacerbating deep-rooted inequities, with intense social repercussions ranging from polarization and declining levels of trust to social unrest.
2. Ensuring sustainable development and poverty reduction will require greater attention to social sustainability in addition to economic and environmental sustainability.
3. Social sustainability increases when more people feel part of the development process and believe that they and their descendants will benefit from it.
4. Communities and societies that are more socially sustainable are more willing and able to work together to overcome challenges, deliver public goods, and allocate scarce resources in ways perceived to be legitimate and fair so that all people may thrive over time.
5. Social sustainability has four key components: social cohesion, inclusion, resilience, and process legitimacy—the extent to which a community or society accepts who has authority, what goals they pursue, and how policies and programs get implemented.
6. Key priorities to foster social sustainability include
◾understanding the policy arena by identifying the key stakeholders, their objectives, and prevailing norms and values;
◾fostering space in the policy arena for all to provide input and voice concerns, especially those at risk of exclusion; and
◾engaging for the long haul: change can be slow, but staying engaged, deepening relationships, and building trust typically pays off.
7. How development occurs matters greatly: How governments and development organizations manage social change has important implications for achieving and sustaining poverty reduction and inclusive growth

Human Rights Due Diligence: Challenges of Method, Power and Competition

Resource Key: CXED83HH

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Warwick, UK

Institution: University of Warwick

Date: March 2023

Human rights due diligence (HRDD) looks set to become a mandatory obligation imposed on many larger businesses by a variety of governments globally. But our understanding of the future potential of HRDD is currently constrained by lack of research into how it is operationalised in practice. This paper fills that gap by providing the first detailed empirical analysis of HRDD on the basis of interviews with practitioners who undertake HRDD, or aspects thereof, for companies. It argues that HRDD has the potential to address both a knowledge problem and an action problem with regard to the human rights performance of transnational corporations (TNCs). But the findings of this research identify three key challenges to making HRDD effective; (1) methodological uncertainty about key aspects of the process (2) power dynamics between critical actors who are charged with undertaking vital aspects of HRDD and (3) the nature of the competition which takes place between HRDD practitioners. Mandatory HRDD laws must empower key actors to effectively hold companies accountable for the HRDD they produce, otherwise more radical regulatory interventions need to be considered.

Human Rights Due Diligence: Challenges of Method, Power and Competition – Policy Brief

Resource Key: 227N5XX2

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Place: Warwick, UK

Institution: University of Warwick, School of Law

Date: May 2023

Human rights due diligence (HRDD) is set to become a mandatory obligation imposed on many larger businesses by a variety of governments globally. This briefing reports on the first detailed empirical research into HRDD, based on interviews with leading practitioners in the field. The findings of this research identify three key challenges to making HRDD effective: 1) methodological uncertainty about key aspects of the process; 2) power dynamics between critical actors who are charged with undertaking vital aspects of HRDD; 3) the nature of the competition which takes place between HRDD practitioners. It therefore provides recommendations for how mandatory HRDD (mHRDD) laws can empower ey actors to effectively hold companies accountable for the HRDD they produce. If these laws are ineffective, it argues for the setting up of an independent body to have lead responsibility for overseeing the HRDD process internationally.

Extractive Industries, Land Rights and Indigenous Populations’/Communities’ Rights

Resource Key: W4S7CNIT

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2017

Language: English

In 2003, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) establis-hed the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities in Africa (WGIP) with the responsibility to advise the Commission on matters relating to the rights of indigenous populations/communities on the continent. In this capacity, the WGIP found it appropriate to commission a study on extractive industries, land rights and indigenous populations/communities to inform and guide its activities and that of all other stakeholders.

Gender Checklist Resettlement

Resource Key: GBKBJK7P

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2003

This checklist is designed to assist staff and consultants inimplementing the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Policy onInvoluntary Resettlement (November 1995) and Policy on Genderand Development (June 1998). It will guide users in identifying andaddressing gender issues in resettlement planning, implementation,and monitoring, and in designing gender-inclusive resettlementplans.

Forum on Indigenous Peoples’ Development Issues in Africa

Resource Key: A2L3KRJD

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2013

The Representatives of Indigenous Peoples Organizations ap-proached the African Development Bank and urged it ‘to place more consideration on their issues’. While the African Development Bank is committed to promoting inclusive growth on the continent, the question of who are truly Indigenous Peoples in Africa has remained a politically sensitive issue. This is a fundamental challenge as there is no agreed definition for Indigenous Peoples in Africa or interna-tionally. However, it is generally agreed that indigenous peoples, irrespective of how they are defined or identified are more vulner-able to marginalization, violent conflicts, exclusion and exploitation.

African Development Bank Group’s Development and Indigenous Peoples in Africa

Resource Key: YI98EQPJ

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2016

This Issues Report presents the outcome of a diagnostic assessment of Indigenous People’s (IPs) development issues on the African continent. The assessment was conducted by the Compliance and Safeguards Division of the African Development Bank. The issues report is intended to provide the Bank with basic information on the Indigenous People on the continent, their recognition among the Bank’s Regional Member Countries (RMCs)3 and their participation in socio economic development. The report also presents technical options and recommendations that are important in guiding the Bank in the future revision of its policies, procedures and guidelines intended to mitigate undesirable effects of development on the Indigenous People found in its RMCs. This issues report finalised in 2015 was prepared to serve as a basis for the Bank’s deliberations on the issue of Indigenous People in Africa.

AIPP 2014 Training manual on FPIC for Indigenous persons

Resource Key: CVXEZMZA

Document Type: Book

Creator:

Place: 108 Moo 5, Tambon Sanpranate, Amphur Sansai, Chiang Mai 50210, Thailand

Date: 2014

Indigenous peoples today are faced with numerous challenges as their lands, territories and resources are targeted for exploitation by corporations, governments and other external entities. Indigenous peoples all over the world increasingly have to contend with business interests wanting to tap into the last reserves of the world’s natural resources and biological diversity, which indigenous peoples have protected and nurtured for many generations. Through their traditional and sustainable development practices, indigenous peoples were able to maintain their ancestral domains for their own survival and for the sake of future generations. However, corporations have come in the name of “development”, to extract and exploit these resources on a large scale, and in the process displacing and desecrating indigenous communities, violating indigenous peoples’ rights and depriving them of their means of survival.

Seat toolbox: Socio-Economic Assessment Toolbox Version 3

Resource Key: YCI4TJTI

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2012

The objective of this tool is to provide a standard format in which key information about the operation can be reported. Profiling the Anglo American operation is intended as a desk-based exercise to identify already-known socio-economic issues and impacts, including human rights impacts. The understanding of these issues and impacts will be further developed and enhanced through engagement with external stakeholders (see Tool 2B – Developing a Stakeholder Engagement Plan).

The Community Guide to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Resource Key: EJF5244U

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2010

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples took over 20 years of hard work by people like Lowitja O’Donoghue, Les Malezer, Mick Dodson and Megan Davis to come to fruition. The adoption of the Declaration is one thing. Now we face the challenge of real implementation. By implementation, I mean making both the intent and spirit of the Declaration real to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Declaration is comprehensive and as you go through this document you will see the 46 articles provide guidance for every aspect of our lives. It is only when we can see these articles being translated from abstract concepts to practical improvements in our lives that the spirit and intent of the Declaration will be realised.

Beyond zero harm framework: A Participatory Process for Measuring Community Well-Being

Resource Key: Y3UW7C6U

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2016

The Beyond Zero Harm Framework (BZH) is a participatory process for discussing, defining, measuring and analyzing community well-being. The framework was jointly developed by participants of the Devonshire Initiative, including mining companies, civil society organizations and academics, and is designed to address gaps in the collection of consistent and meaningful data on community well-being in locations where mining companies operate. The multi-stakeholder process on which the BZH Framework is based also aims to shift how companies participate in community development dialogue more broadly. The Framework is laid out in four-phases and is designed to complement existing company initiatives for baseline data collection (such as Social Impact Assessments) as well as existing community planning and development processes.

Beyond zero harm indicators: Community Wellbeing Indicator Profiles

Resource Key: ZAJHT3XJ

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2016

The Beyond Zero Harm Framework uses a set of 31 Core Indicators that cover an inclusive range of categories around community well-being, including: governance; civic engagement; health; education; safety & security; infrastructure; living standards and economy. While environment is also critical to community well-being, no indicators are included in this Core list; instead indicators tailored to the region should be selected for the monitoring process. The Core Indicators provide a consistency to the framework, while ensuring that what’s being measured is relevant to global development standards (and also more likely to be measured at a national level). The process for choosing core indicators involved extensive research, lengthy debates and a screening process which included assessments of each indicator on the basis of: relevance to the project goals; level of complexity; volatility to change; social sensitivity; cost to measure and the extent to which it was outcome-based. The indicators align with the five core capitals, or asset categories, which form part of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework.

Some aspects of compulsory purchase of land for public purposes : scientific monograph

Resource Key: 6RG4NRDQ

Document Type: Book

Creator:

Place: 10-724 Olsztyn, Prawochenskiego 15 Str.

Date: 2010

Land expropriation is treated in many countries all over the world as the classic legal norm. Acccording to this rule, government has power to acquire private real estates only in order to provide land for realisation the significant public purposes. The compulsory purchase ought to be legitimate and the process in which property is taken over should be clearly identified in legislation. Owners, whose property is taken by government for public use, are entitled to be paid adequate compensation. It is constitutionally ensured and is one of the fundamental principles within a rule of law. The studies presented in this monograph entitled Some aspects of compulsory purchase of land for public purposes make a part of the theoretical and practical studies on compulsory purchase as a tool for the acquisition of land carried out by the scientists from Poland and other countries. The source materials which constituted the basis for this publication were prepared in the framework of the cooperation between Authors and studies were inspired by FIG/FAO International Seminar on Compulsory Purchase in Helsinki, Finland in September 2007, FIG working week in Stockholm, Sweden in June 2008, and the FIG/FAO International Seminar or State and Public Land Management in Verona, Italy September 2008. At the beginning, scientists from three Universities participated in these studies – Norwegian University of Life Science in Aas, The Leibniz University in Hannover and The University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. Afterwards, researches from other units decided to join us. They represent University of Economics in Poznań and Katowice, University of Ljubliana and School of Government, University of North Carolina

Right of Way: A journey of resettlement

Resource Key: YHMD6HMQ

Document Type: Book

Creator:

Place: National Library of Sri Lank

Date: 2011

The Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA) has been engaged with the Southern Transport Development Project from 2006 to 2011, monitoring the resettlement and compensation of people displaced by the construction of the Colombo-Matara Expressway. The single largest road project ever implemented in Sri Lanka, this undertaking was not an easy task, and was fraught with tension, opposing interests and dissatisfaction among the affected persons. It had repercussions for those who were displaced, as well as for the implementers of the project, including those who advised, monitored, or provided other services to the process of relocation. As with most life experiences, with the passing of time, we tend to forget the sacrifices made and hardships endured. This book then is an attempt to document what happened to the people who had to move, and the different impacts the project had on their lives. It is based on a structured monitoring process carried out over four years, that involved a survey of 400 households, more than 30 group discussions with affected households, and over 450 individual interviews with residents, experts, local government officials and donors. The information was collected mainly in 2006 with follow-up information on selected issues such as livelihoods, vulnerability, community resources and resettlement sites gathered periodically from 2007 – 2011.

Land and Cultural Survival: The Communal Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Asia

Resource Key: GU2RPKZX

Document Type: Book

Creator:

Place: Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Date: 2011

Over 900 million people in the world are the poorest of the poor. At least one-third of them are indigenous peoples, and more than half of them live in Asia. Social indicators such as life expectancy, maternal mortality, nutrition, education, and health show that they are the poorest. They do not have sufficient land to gather or grow food or to raise livestock. They have few opportunities to learn new skills, obtain medical care, or improve their livelihood. They also find it difficult to influence national policies, laws, and institutions that could improve their life chances and shape their collective future. As a result, most indigenous peoples have been socially, politically, and economically marginalized, endangering their survival in a rapidly changing environment.

Lose to Gain: Is Involuntary Resettlement a Development Opportunity?

Resource Key: JUPSKNWT

Document Type: Book

Creator:

Place: Mandaluyong City, Philippines

Date: 2014

The Land Acquisition Act, 1894 of British India still directs and controls the acquisition of private land for a public purpose in South Asia. Its origins go back to the 1824 Regulation I of the Bengal Code, approved by the colonial authorities to enable the acquisition of land at fair value for roads, canals, or other public purposes and to secure land for the purpose of salt manufacture (Gupta 2012). It sets the legal framework and detailed procedures, and is backed by a large volume of case law. Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka adopted the key legal principles and processes of the Land Acquisition Act in enacting their own land acquisition and compensation laws. Through its close association with India, Nepal, although not part of the former British Empire, also adopted the principles and procedures of the act as its own land acquisition and compensation legislation.

Boom & Bust Local strategy for big events: A community survival guide to turbulent times

Resource Key: LCTR83IP

Document Type: Book

Creator:

Place: Edmonton, Alberta

Date: 2017

This book is about ups and downs in communities, about ways to manage them, to mitigate them, and first of all to survive them. We speak, with the economists, of boom and bust. It is about cycles of growth and shrink, and how to navigate them. We don’t assume as authors that local communities have complete control over their destiny, that they can completely steer or ignore the cycles, but we do think there are more options than just assuming cycles are part of nature. People can do something: local governments, their administrations, business organizations, citizen activists, advisors, academics. Long term perspectives are utterly useful as a frame of reference to understand and respond to up and down but they have to come out of the community itself.

BRK Ambiental and Institutio Trata Brasil presents: Women and Sanitation

Resource Key: P2UXUCZ8

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2019

Access to treated water and sewage services are human rights recognized for years by the United Nations. Recently, this topic has been brought to the spotlight when the issue of gender equality has been jointly focused with the issue of sanitation. The 33rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which was held on July 27, 2016, dealt specifically with this. According to UN Special Rapporteur, Brazilian Léo Heller, gender equality is a fundamental principle of human rights that has not always been respected in urban development policies. In the rapporteur’s view, transformative action is needed to achieve gender equality with regard to the right to the regular provision of treated water and the collection and treatment of sewage. The main ideas and conclusions of this report can be seen in the United Nations (2016).

A Study on the Resettlement Process and Impacts of the Rehabilitation of the Cambodian Railway

Resource Key: FIVHWGGG

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2012

Every year, millions of people around the world are forcibly displaced from their lands, homes and livelihoods to make way for large-scale development projects. Most often those who are forced to sacrifice their place on earth for both public and private interests are amongst the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. They are thus the least equipped to cope with the challenges of physical, economic and social displacement and are as a result thrust into even deeper poverty and social exclusion. In the past two decades, development institutions that finance many of these proj-ects, and many developing country governments, have stepped up their efforts to mitigate the risks of harmful impacts of development projects on displaced populations through safeguard policies, legal and regulatory frameworks and insti-tutional capacity building to ensure better resettlement practices. Despite these efforts, however, the worldwide resettle-ment record remains a shameful one of insufficient financing, poor planning and inadequate implementation, and so these projects generally end up turning into what Oliver-Smith aptly describes as “development disasters.”i As Michael Cernea, the author of the World Bank’s first involuntary resettlement policy, summed up: “The outcomes of most development-caused forced displacement and resettlement (DFDR) leave a disgracing stain on development itself, conflicting with its poverty reduction rationale, objective and ethic.”

Gender, Behavior, and Women’s Economic Empowerment

Resource Key: RBGA5Q9J

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Date: 2016

While the processes of economic development and poverty alleviation can reduce some of the inequalities between men and women that arise when families and communities face extreme resource constraints, growth alone is not enough to guarantee women equal access to health, education, earning opportunities, rights and political participation (Duflo 2012). For this reason, a strong case can be made for policies and programs that seek to address gender-specific constraints to economic empowerment. Many of these constraints are external in nature, for example educational opportunities, access to financial services, and asset ownership. In addition, gender differences in internal constraints—psychological and behavioral preferences rooted in social evolution and cultural norms—may play an important role in shaping the choices that women make with respect to labor market participation, entrepreneurship, technology adoption, and expenditure and consumption patterns. This paper explores the evidence on gender differences in behavior and how program design can best utilize our growing knowledge about the nature of these differences to inform policy going forward.One of the most exciting recent intellectual trends in the field of development economics is the incorporation of important insights from behavioral science into the understanding of economic decision-making. Indeed, the World Bank’s 2015 World Development Report, entitled “Mind, Society, and Behavior,” was devoted to exploring this paradigm, and how it can be applied in diverse policy areas such as early childhood development, household finance, and health. In the coming years, as the international development community moves away from classical assumptions about rationality and learns more about the complexities of cognition and identity, the influence of culture, and the biases and seemingly less than rational preferences characterizing human choices, we are sure to see increasing numbers of policies and programs being guided by behavioral design principles.