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Working with Community Groups in Kyaukphyu on Responsible Investment
Aung Kyaw Soe and Hnin Htet Htet Aung were resource people for a workshop in Kyaukphyu for civil society organisations on “Responsible Business and Community Engagement” on 30/31 October organised by local civil society organisation Scholar Institute.
Over 40 participants from 21 villages in the area attended, including seven Community Based Organizations. The workshop was an opportunity to discuss what responsible business means for communities engaging with the various investment projects which exist or are planned in the Kyaukphyu area, including the Maday Deep Sea Port, the offshore gas terminal, the proposed Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and the proposed Offshore Supply Base which has received an MIC Permit for on Made Island.
MCRB’s presentations and the group discussions focussed on international standards for responsible business, particularly those of the IFC, community engagement, including the nature and value of stakeholder engagement and mapping, operational grievance mechanisms, the Myanmar legal framework for investment, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and the spectrum of corporate social responsibility (CSR) including the distinction between what a company must do (to address its negative impacts) and what it can choose to do (to improve its social licence to operate), including through activities to ‘create shared value’ and benefit both the business and the local community.
The workshop was also an opportunity for civil society to offer views on what a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for investment in the Kyaukphyu area should address. An SEA was a recommendation of the Rakhine Advisory Commission chaired by Dr Kofi Annan which suggested that an SEA should ‘explore how the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) may affect local communities and map how other economic sectors in the state may benefit (or possibly suffer) from the SEZ. Moreover, the Government should require foreign companies involved in the development of the SEZ to develop robust mechanisms for information sharing and consultation with local communities and civil society, in accordance with principles of corporate social responsibility’.
The Netherlands Commission for Environment Assessment has offered to assist the Myanmar Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) for the initial scoping phase of such an SEA.
Community groups identified a range of environmental, social and governance issues they would like to see covered, both in the SEA, and in any individual EIAs undertaken including by the SEZ consortium.
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