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Article

27 Nov 2017

Author:
Rachel Phoya, in Mining in Malawi

Malawi: How to negotiate credible community development agreements between mineral-rich communities & mining companies

"How can Malawi ensure community development agreements are implemented effectively?"

Malawi’s much and long-awaited new mining legislation is likely to include a provision that will require companies to spend no less than 0.45% of their annual gross sales revenue on community development activities as prescribed in community development agreements (CDAs). Companies that hold large-scale mining licences will be required to enter into these agreements with all qualified communities that are within 20 kilometre radius of the licence boundary. CDAs have evolved as both voluntary and obligatory tools to improve the relations between companies and communities and to help enable mining to contribute to longer-term sustainable development. In theory, they should help to guide mutually-beneficial expectations and set clear roles and responsibilities of companies, communities, and in some cases, government. They are not without their risks. If the process to develop a CDA is not well managed, it can result in discontent and conflict within and between host communities and a lack of ownership.  Agreements have to be well crafted to ensure that they do not create an unhealthy dependency on a mining project – which will inevitably be of only a limited length – or replace the responsibility of government to its citizens...[I] highlight some critical recommendations that should be considered as Malawi embarks on introducing CDAs.

Stakeholder identification is key before negotiations begin. Even if the law is clear, companies that do the best do not limit themselves to the letter of the law but look to identify all potentially affected communities, especially those downstream. Stakeholder identification is also an ongoing process because communities move and change. Identification also includes third parties such as non-government organisations and government stakeholders that can/will be involved in negotiations. This process should use a variety of means of research, including participatory impact assessments. Determining who will be stakeholder representatives and who will drive the process is vital...Ideally, each stakeholder group should be allowed to determine their own representatives, but efforts must be made to ensure that groups that have been excluded in the past are included, such as women and people living with disabilities.