Back
24. Corporate Community Leadership Program examines impact of community development activities in India
The Corporate Community Leadership Program is a joint learning initiative developed by the Company and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad (Oxfam CAA). This is the second year of the program, which aims to expose participants to the impact that community development projects can have on the livelihoods, living standards, health and rights of local communities. This year, 12 of our employees, accompanied by four Oxfam CAA facilitators, journeyed to India for two weeks, visiting villages in the eastern state of Orissa.
The Company participants in the program represented a diverse range of BHP Billiton businesses, locations and roles, from people involved in hands-on community affairs to senior management.
Following a comprehensive briefing in Vizag, the group travelled to Orissa for a series of village visits organised by WIDA, a local NGO whose acronym derives from Integrated Rural Development of Weaker Sections in India.
WIDA's focus is on empowering village communities by establishing community organisations and facilitating capacity-building projects. Much of their work is directed at forming committees of people within a village and then within a federation of villages. This is aimed at giving people the opportunity to have their opinions heard.
As well as seeing successful community development programs in practice, participants also saw close-up how communities can be negatively impacted by infrastructure development, especially when it involves displacing and relocating people. The group visited villages that have not participated in any community development work, as well as villages where WIDA has been active for many years. The difference between them was stark.
In the village of Putsil, for instance, a micro hydro plant had been built by the villagers with the assistance of WIDA and several overseas NGOs. The plant provides the village with a few hours of electricity a day, which is used for lighting and to run an oil pressing plant and a grain grinding mill. This frees the women from the long hours of work involved in grinding grain by hand and also gives them a means to earn money by grinding grain for other villages.
This is a good example of how WIDA helps people to develop income-generating enterprises through small-scale projects. Other examples are handicrafts and new activities, such as building dams to farm fish. Women are also being trained in non-customary roles, such as masonry and carpentry.
The group then travelled to Berampur where they were hosted by Gram Vikas, one of India's largest NGOs. Gram Vikas takes a different community development approach to that of WIDA, focusing on large-scale community infrastructure projects. They work with villagers to install water plants and sanitation systems and to develop basic education and healthcare programs.
A key learning from the Corporate Community Leadership Program is that leading-edge community development work is based on human rights. This means going beyond providing services and physical infrastructure and focusing on helping people through building social capital and organisational capacity.
This aspect of the program highlights the complexities of the Company's community development involvement. On returning from India, one of the participants noted that ‘One of the things I hadn't anticipated is what a political process community development is. The aim of a rights-based approach to community development is to empower people; and, as a consequence, you can end up with politicised communities because they are fully aware of their rights and they demand them. Doing the right thing is not necessarily going to be comfortable for us. But, after all, it is the communities who will decide when the Company is successful at community development’.
This comment is a reflection of our recognition that local communities are key stakeholders in the resource development process and that we have a responsibility to acknowledge and respect their rights. Through our involvement in the Corporate Community Leadership Program, we aim to further our understanding of social issues related to our operations, so that we can continue to improve our skills in planning and implementing effective and sustainable community programs.
