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Corporate Engagement Projects
First Peoples Collaborates with Shell Oil to Engage Indigenous Communities
The Corporate Engagement department is currently working with Shell Oil’s Social Performance Management Unit (SPMU) to help facilitate the company’s Sakhalin Indigenous Minorities Development Program (SIMDP). First Peoples Worldwide will take initial assessment trips to Sakhalin Island to get to know the Indigenous communities and find out their particular needs.
We will engage the community in open sessions and meetings in order to assess their economic base of skills and options. During these sessions and meetings we will listen to community members’ ideas on how they envision ways to gain economic leverage and take control of their assets. With the help of the community, we will also chart economic “maps” which will outline their major skills, proven moneymaking ventures, and profitable subsistence livelihood patterns.
Interaction between Indigenous communities and Shell is likely to increase over the years. This is because (a) Indigenous groups are gaining influence and leverage in areas where Shell operates; (b) Shell is involved in several new projects where Indigenous communities are directly impacted; (c) the Equator Principles and IFC Standards have increased requirements for the consultation and management of impacts on Indigenous communities.
First Peoples lays groundwork for Indigenous Peoples’ Session at Davos
We are working toward an Indigenous Peoples’ Session during the 2008 World Economic Forum. The purpose of this session is to facilitate dialogue that addresses pressing issues in the engagement of Indigenous stakeholders, as well as a sincere understanding of particular Indigenous community issues such as socioeconomic equity, benefits from assets and resources, and sustainable development.
Building effective bridges of engagement with Indigenous peoples in the absence of mutually agreed-upon rules and regulations can be challenging. Resource extractive corporations will have to seek out the most effective means for meeting the needs of all stakeholders in ways that are pragmatic and useful. Global socioeconomic trends increasingly point toward the importance of fostering genuine collaboration between resource extractive corporations and Indigenous communities all over the world.
The Davos Indigenous Peoples’ Session is designed to highlight cases of best corporate practice. It will also offer practical, socially and economically beneficial solutions to pertinent issues concerning industry engagement of Indigenous stakeholders.
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| First Peoples Worldwide · 3307 Bourbon Street · Fredericksburg, VA 22408 · (540) 899-6545 |
