crossing the line - and back again (2014)

Crossing The LineA little story about how small impacts can grow into big problems...

- and back again.

This is Sven. Sven likes growing plants. Sven keeps to himself, and doesn’t like

to bother people or be bothered much himself. Sven’s plants are his livelihood.

Growing and selling his plants is how Sven provides for his family.

!Sven lives in a community that is near an extractive

exploration project. Everyone knows that there is an exploration project nearby because the company

provided information at a village meeting.

Many are excited about the opportunities for jobs.

Until one day, when big trucks start driving through the village.

Immediately after, Sven and some

neighbours go to the company

representative to explain how the

trucks are impacting them.

But the company representative explains that there is only the one road

through town and that there is nothing he can do.

Sven and the community members leave the company’s

office feeling disappointed, frustrated, and unsure about

what to do to help them improve the situation.

Uncertain and still concerned, they go to speak to some community leaders who are elected

local level politicians.

Seeing the level of concern of

the community members, the local politician

speaks to...

...the state level politician...

..and the local branch of an international advocacy

organisation.

Both the state politician and the advocacy organisation decide to campaign in favour of the community.

So everyone is now organised. Together they raise their concerns to the company representative. But the reality is that there is very little he is empowered to do in the

immediate term… and everyone just gets more

frustrated.

Without a ‘win’, the campaigners carry on with their campaign. But all Sven and his neighbours want is the situation improved as soon as possible.

But now the concern is beyond Sven and his neighbours. The concern is now a political issue and a cause that people are fighting for. Money has been raised, lawyers have been hired, and

there is no standing down

c

once the line has been crossed...

...or is there?

Maybe, if we look back at the situation we can understand what three tools could of helped to avoid it?

So what happened was... 1. Sven takes his concern to the company representative

And we all know what happens next.And we all know what happens next.

2. The company representative isn’t able or doesn’t know how to help Sven with his concern

3. The concern crosses ‘the line’ when it is escalated to individuals with influence who see opportunity

4. The situation gets out of control when the community members like Sven lose ownership of the issue

5. And at the end of the day, Sven and the community still don’t have their concerns addressed

The Line of ‘No Return’

...but what if nobody crossed the line in the first place? !

What happens if…

Sven takes his concern to a trained community relations practitioner working for the company who was empowered by his company which had established an effective Grievance Mechanism

to help address community concerns?

And the CR practitioner went to the community to better understand the impacts of the trucks

on Sven’s livelihood and map the areas of importance

to the community.

Better understanding the impacts and level of

the concern of the community. The CR practitioner helps the company create and

adopt a set of Land Access Rules

that instruct employees and contractors on what activities are appropriate in the

community and what the alternate options are to reduce community impacts.

And at the end of the day...

...and the community relations practitioner has done just 3 important things: !

1) mapped community land use, 2) helped to establish appropriate land access rules, and, 3) implemented a company grievance mechanism

- and nobody has even thought about crossing the line.

...the company has maintained it’s

social license to operate...

...the community feels listed to and

concerns are addressed...

The End.

Concept, design, and story by:

ILLUSTRATIONS BY: TATJANA LARINA

‘Crossing the Line - and Back Again’ by Independent Social Performance Pte. Ltd. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This means you are free to Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. But under the terms you must ensure:

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!contact@independentsp.com

!www.independentsp.com

Independent SP would like to thank Cesar Neira - South American

Community Relations Manager for Barrick Gold and Professor Mario

Cedrón of the Universidad Católica del Perú who during a meeting on a

hot Lima afternoon inspired the original concept for this story.