Publications

According to the World Bank, the purpose of local economic development (LED) is to build the economic capacity of a local area to improve its economic future and the quality of life for all. It is a process by which public, business and nongovernmental sector partners work collectively to create better conditions for economic growth and employment generation. It has also long been recognized that the more isolated regions of countries fail to develop economically because they are left out of the mainstream development agenda. The designers of multi-stakeholder engagement for local economic development postulated that this situation could be rectified with prudent investment if human motivation and the dynamics of trade could be harnessed by potential beneficiaries.For O&G companies, investing in communities is an added-value investment. It should not be confused with a companys obligations to mitigate or compensate local communities for environmental and social impacts resultant of the project, as these issues are addressed separately under IFCs Social and Environmental Performance Standards. Nevertheless, the two are interrelated components of a holistic approach for managing companycommunity relationships.There is greater emphasis on the business caseon viewing Community Investment (CI) through the lens of risks and opportunities, and on creating “shared value by aligning business goals and competencies with the development priorities of local stakeholders. Other trends include a focus on building social capital and local ownership through multi-stakeholder processes, factoring sustainability and handover strategies into project design, and measuring and communicating results to optimize the business value derived from CI.This paper is written around three key strategies comprising a comprehensive strategic planning framework for multi-stakeholder engagement for strategic community investment. Developing a strategy is an iterative, multi-step process with some steps taken internally by the company and others requiring engagement, feedback, and multistakeholder processes.