Company-Community Dialogue | Corporate Social Responsibility

This film interweaves three stories about companies and communities that have found themselves in varying degrees of conflict and looked for a way out through dialogue. In each instance, the parties to the conflict used a neutral third-party mediator to help them craft a process through which they could address concerns and progressively resolve their core conflicts. Each story is the subject of a self-standing short film: the first, 'Making Monkey Business', involves a hydro-electric power plant and surrounding communities in the Philippines; the second, 'Putting Ourselves in Their Shoes', involves a copper mine and indigenous communities in the Peruvian Andes; and the third, 'The Only Government We See' involves an oil and gas company and local communities in the Niger Delta. Each of these films tells of the origins of the conflict, describes how and why both company and communities came to consider mediated dialogue as a way forward, and relates the processes that unfolded, with the

'The Only Government We See' tells the story of the negotiation of General Memoranda of Understanding (GMOUs) between Chevron and communities in the Niger Delta around its facilities. The process began after violent conflict in the region in 2003 led to the withdrawal of the company and the destruction of property, including schools and hospitals the company had built for communities. The film describes the new approach to dialogue with communities that the company adopted on its return, based on full participation and joint partnership. It relates the role played by the head of the New Nigeria Foundation, a local NGO that came in to mediate the dialogue and help build the foundations for increased trust between those involved. It conveys how and why the communities decided to engage in the dialogue, what progress and challenges emerged along the way, and the outcomes that have been achieved. It reflects how this experience spawned a continuing process of periodically evaluating and re

'Putting Ourselves in Their Shoes' tells of the rising resentments among community members to the operations of Tintaya mine through the course of its government ownership and subsequent privatization, and the way these came to a head when ownership passed to BHP Billiton. It relates the process by which non-governmental organisations such as Oxfam Australia, Oxfam America, CooperAccion and Corecami entered the picture, and the important roles they played in helping give birth to the process and/or supporting the communities' ability to engage effectively. It relays the concerns of communities and their leaders, the pressures on the company at the time, and how ultimately, all parties agreed upon the creation of a "Dialogue Table" that identified key issues, principles and ground rules for an ongoing dialogue process that continues to this day. It conveys setbacks for both communities and company in the process, and the ultimate achievement of meaningful and sustainable outcomes. This

'Making Monkey Business' tells of a dispute resolution process involving communities that were impacted by the building of the Ambuklao and Binga dams in the Benguet Province of the Philippines. The mediated dialogue was facilitated by the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman of the World Bank Group and the mediation was conducted by the Conflict Resolution Group in the Philippines. The film conveys the process as experienced by those who participated - community, company and government representatives - and is told in their own voices. It celebrates what was achieved at Ambuklao and Binga through the power of informed dialogue, and showcases a process that other companies and communities facing disputes could be encouraged to consider. This is one of four films in a series on company-community dialogue produced by the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School on behalf of the mandate of the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Business and H