Stakeholder engagement, how do you please everyone or can you?
I watched a PBS special from the series on “Woman, War, & Peace” this morning entitled “The War We are Living.” This was in preparation to attend the Schulich Business Case Competition in Toronto. The team I am on is preparing a case on mining sustainability.
This episode deals with indigenous people in Colombia who are fighting to hold on to the gold rich land that has sustained the community through small scale mining for centuries. The Colombian Bureau of Mines recently sold the land rights of this village to an entrepreneur from Colombia. He claimed that they had no rights and that they needed to vacate or be evicted. Obviously, the community was very upset and fought against the eviction notice. Recently, the judicial system reversed the sale, so for now, the village can continue mining. This region is known for the gold deposits and has many more communities who could potentially be in the same situation.
I want to analyze three stakeholders, the government Bureau of Mines, the entrepreneur, and the community. First from the perspective of the Bureau of Mines, if the land is sold and entrepreneurs or companies can build mines this is positive growth. This creates economic development which will increase employment, tax revenue, infrastructure, and more. Corruption is most assuredly a factor as well.
From the perspective of the Colombian entrepreneur, he can expand his company and provide employment, better resources to indigenous people, and higher profits for his business. Elected officials want to see economic development projects which they can boast about come election time.
From the perspective of the community, they are happy with the status quo and do not want anything to change. Economic development, job creation, and income generation are not high priorities for the community or are not as essential to daily life. It would appear that the local community should be happy to see development which would create higher wages, better mining conditions, and better living conditions but that is not so, why?
How do elected officials, companies, or government agencies interested in development account for the rights of indigenous people? How are the rights of indigenous people protected when many more people could benefit? Do we as a western culture assume that what we want is what everyone wants? What is happiness about? How is it possible to appease these three stakeholders at the same time? What does this say about democracy? As I ask all of these questions and more I realize how critical stakeholder engagement is and how important it is to obtain a “social license to operate.”