This section is aligned with the International Finance Corporation Performance Standards (PS) on Environmental and Social Sustainability (IFC PS, 2012) and specifically 4 (Box 4C.1) as this relates to Community Health, Safety and Security. However, has a clear overlap into other , including: 1 (Assessment and Management of Environmental and Social Risks and Impacts), 2 (Labour and Working Conditions), 3 (Resource Efficiency and Pollution Prevention), 5 (Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement), 6 (Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Management of Living Natural Resources), 7 (Indigenous Peoples), and 8 (Cultural Heritage).
This section also aligns with the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs), recognising health as an international human right, aimed at ensuring that everyone, including vulnerable groups, can enjoy the highest attainable level of health and well-being.
Specifically, this section:
- highlights core concepts and principles.
- presents a methodological approach to assess and address potential impacts and risks following a standardised Health Impact Assessment (HIA) approach, including reference tools and resources.
- provides a framework to establish an appropriate health external context review that supports the evidence for the impact and risk assessment, as well as future monitoring and evaluation activities.
- provides a method to link the assessment of impacts and risks to the Way and socio-economic development (SED) so that health is integrated as part of cross-functional assessments and related environmental and social management plans.
- describes the synergies and inter-connectedness between existing Anglo American policies and commitments, including the Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Way; the Sustainable Mining Plan; the vision of zero harm; and integrated standards related to Environmental, Social and Health Impact Assessment.
- guides the development of a management plan and related monitoring and evaluation processes as part of impact and risk management.
- provides considerations for stakeholder engagement on issues.
- details the external partnerships required, as well as the internal co-ordination and cross-functional collaboration needed.
Intended users
Community health and safety is everyone’s responsibility, particularly the site management team.
Community health impacts associated with mining can stem from multiple sources and all those working on site should strive towards the same goal of safeguarding the asset, the workers and potentially affected external stakeholders.
The primary responsibility for identification and assessment of impacts and risks, and development, implementation and co-ordination of management plans (including external context reviews), rests with the site Social Performance and Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) teams.
There is also a link to the Sustainable Mining Plan and specifically, the Thriving Communities stretch goals that includes the element of health and well-being; therefore, cross-functional collaboration is important. The link to is discussed below and, while approaches and methods may differ, opportunities to integrate community health initiatives should always be considered.
Relevance to other sections
In addition to this section, community health and safety management is supported by other guidance in the Social Way toolkit.
- Governance (Section 1):
- Section 1 provides guidance on social performance management and resourcing, including in relation to . It also details the requirement to establish a Social Performance Management Committee (SPMC). The is the primary vehicle for ensuring cross-functional collaboration in developing, implementing and monitoring the management plan.
- Review and Planning (Section 2)
- Social Performance planning – sites’ internal and external context review and vulnerability assessments provide information critical to . The internal context review will provide important information about all site activities and infrastructure, including ancillary features (such as transmission lines, roads, rail lines) that must be considered when assessing potential impacts and risks. The internal and external context will be considered throughout the impact assessment process, with a specific emphasis on scoping to determine potential health impact areas of concern, and again at the impact-assessment phase. Any material changes in either the internal and external context will need to be continually evaluated and, as required, the Social and Human Rights impact and Risk Analysis (SHIRA) should be updated to include these elements.
- Engagement and Assessment (Section 3)
- Stakeholder engagement – in order to properly assess and manage impacts and risks, it is necessary to involve appropriate external stakeholders, including local and national authorities, relevant institutions and affected communities. The process outlined in this section should be incorporated into sites’ Stakeholder Engagement Plans (SEPs).
- Incident and Grievance management – incidents and grievances are a critical tool in tracking and improving a site’s impact assessment, management, and performance.
- Social and Human Rights Impact and Risk Analysis (SHIRA) – the potential adverse impacts on stakeholders and risks to the business should be tracked through sites’ process. Information about other types of potential human rights impacts in and associated mitigations may also be relevant for community health.
- Impacts and Risk Prevention and Management (Section 4)
- Socio-economic Development (SED) Planning (4A)‒a number of health determinants are included in the model of Thriving Communities, including community health and well-being under the living condition theme. The information and analysis developed through this section should inform planning and setting of priorities as it seeks to identify opportunities to enhance or optimise potential beneficial impacts that may be associated with the development or operation of the site.
- Contractor Management (4B) – various contractor activities may have an impact on and contracts should specify the controls and requirements needed to prevent or minimise these impacts. Examples of potential impacts and risks associated with contractor activities are summarised in 4C Guidance Note 3.
- Emergency Preparedness and Response Planning (4D)– local capacity for emergency preparedness should be screened through a health lens. Guidance and requirements to safeguard in emergency situations through emergency preparedness and response planning are outlined in section 4D.
- Security Management and the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (4E)– potential -related risks and impacts linked to a site’s security arrangement should be assessed and managed in accordance with the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights(VPSHRs).
- Land Access, Displacement and Resettlement (4F) – displacement and resettlement can have impacts on affected stakeholders’ health and mental well-being and can make stakeholders more vulnerable to other impacts. Examples of potential impacts and risks that may be associated with physical displacement and economic resettlement are summarised in 4C Guidance Note 4.
- Site-induced Migration (4G)– site-induced migration (SIM) can be a source of several impacts. Examples of potential impacts and risks that may be associated with SIM are summarised in 4C Guidance Note 5.
- Cultural Heritage (4H)– the value of cultural heritage resources, traditions and practices, including traditional medicine practices, should be understood and any potential impacts managed.
- Indigenous Peoples (4I)– potential impacts related to Indigenous Peoples need to be understood in the context of such peoples’ unique past and current cultures, rights, traditions and experiences. Given these unique circumstances, several specific determinants may influence health outcomes of indigenous groups compared to non-indigenous people. For example, access to traditional food, spirituality, ceremonies and traditional teaching, access to traditional territory, and engagement in traditional practices.
- Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (4K)– the presence of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) can affect , as this activity may increase stakeholder vulnerabilities to certain health outcomes. In addition, loss of the ability to practise as a form of livelihood as a direct consequence of physical displacement or land clearing may have significant social and economic (including health) consequences.
Definitions
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Determinants of health
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The range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status.
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Direct health impact effect
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A direct (primary) effect demonstrates a specific cause-and-effect relationship caused by an action occurring at the same time and place (e.g. traffic accident with a site vehicle or emissions from a site process affecting air quality).
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Equity in health
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Refers to fair, just and unavoidable differences in exposure to health risk factors and status, among groups of people. As an example, significant differences in mortality or environmental risk exposure between low- and high-income groups would be considered unfair and avoidable, and therefore considered an equity challenge.
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Good international industry practice (GIIP)
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Means standards, practices, methods and procedures conforming to local legislation/ regulatiuons and the exercise of the degree of skill and care, diligence, prudence and foresight which would reasonably and ordinarily be expected from a skilled and experienced person or body engaged within the relevant industry or business sector.
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Health indicator
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Is a characteristic of an individual, population, or environment which is subject to measurement (directly or indirectly) and can be used to describe one or more aspects of the health of an individual or population (quality, quantity and time).
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Health inequality
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Refers to descriptive measures of difference in exposure to health risk factors, and to differences in health status between groups of people.
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Health need (and opportunities) assessment
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A community health needs assessment involves a systematic review of the current health issues faced by a population, with the outputs leading to agreed priorities, and development of strategies to direct resource allocation with the aim of addressing identified community health needs, improving health outcomes and reducing inequalities. The process involves the community and collaborative participation.
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Health outcome
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A change in the health status of an individual, group or population which is attributable to a planned intervention or series of interventions, regardless of whether such an intervention was intended to change health status.
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Health sector
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Consists of organised public and private health services, health departments and ministries, health-related non-government organisations (NGOs,) community groups and professional associations.
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Health status
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Is a description and/or measurement of the health of an individual or population at a particular point in time against identifiable standards, usually by reference to health indicators.
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Indirect health impact effect
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An indirect effect is a secondary by-product (removed by distance or caused by an action occurring later in time) of an interaction among multiple variables and may be a consequence of a direct effect (e.g. site induced in-migration and pressure on basic services, transmission of communicable diseases, or change in traditional values due to resettlement).
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Potentially affected stakeholder
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In the context of community health and safety, the term potentially affected community is often used instead of the more generalised term potentially affected stakeholder.
For the purposes of completeness, the term potentially affected community(ies) generally describes a community (e.g. town(s), village(s) or group of settlements) within a clear geographical boundary where site-related health impacts may reasonably be expected to occur. Potentially affected communities are inherently prospective and simply represent best professional judgments, with the potential that these may change over time. These communities may be affected by impacts that can be direct (communities affected by proximity and operations of the project), indirect (e.g. influenced by transport routes, local economic changes and changes in culture and lifestyles), or cumulative impacts. Potentially affected communities may be classified collectively based on the homogeneity of their impacts/risks.
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Sensitive receptor
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Sensitive receptors are people or communities that may have a significantly increased sensitivity or exposure to contaminants by virtue of their age and health (e.g. schools, day care centres, hospitals, nursing homes), proximity to source of exposure or contamination (noise, air quality), or the facilities they use (e.g. water supply). The location of sensitive receptors must be identified in order to evaluate the potential impact of the contamination on public health and the environment.
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World Health Organization (WHO) Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) Tool
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The WHO SARA is a health facility assessment tool using a set of tracer indicators designed to assess and monitor the service availability and readiness of the health sector and to generate evidence to support the planning and managing of a health system. The objective is to generate reliable and regular information on service delivery (such as the availability of key human and infrastructure resources), on the availability of basic equipment, basic amenities, essential medicines, and diagnostic capacities, and on the readiness of health facilities to provide basic healthcare interventions relating to family planning, child health services, basic and comprehensive emergency obstetric care, HIV, TB, malaria, and non-communicable diseases. In addition to the SARA assessments, specific guidance on health capacity assessments to respond to emergencies in case of site-induced migration are published by the WHO. As required, these can be adapted to consider other health service indicators such as the ability to manage trauma cases either through effective in-transit stabilisation, definitive care and referral care.
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1 International Finance Corporation (IFC) (2009) Introduction to Health Impact Assessment. Available at: https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/topics_ext_content/ifc_external_corporate_site/sustainability-at-ifc/publications/publications_handbook_healthimpactassessment__wci__1319578475704 [Accessed January 2021]