Strong participatory planning involving the potentially affected communities, government agencies and other stakeholders is a critical factor in helping to protect lives, safeguard the environment and minimise adverse impacts in the event of an emergency, and optimise the post-emergency recovery process. This section provides guidance on engagement, co-ordination and collaboration with external stakeholders in emergency management efforts in terms of preparedness, response and recovery. It aligns with the Emergency Management Standard (AATS-703-001) and its associated specifications.

Activities outlined in this section should be co-ordinated and integrated with other site emergency management activities, documented in the site’s Emergency Management Plan (EMP), and associated procedures. The EMP, as per the Emergency Response Plan Specification (AATS-703-002), is an integrated plan that includes all aspects related to both Anglo American’s on-site preparation as well as preparation with external stakeholders, as required and guided by the Social Way 3.0.

Specifically, this section:

• describes the internal and external co-ordination required to co-develop and implement an EMP and its associated procedures to cover preparedness, response and recovery efforts for each potential site-induced emergency that could impact on external stakeholders;
• outlines an approach to consultation and awareness-raising to ensure local communities are prepared for potential site-induced emergency scenarios that may affect them;
• details the requirement for an EMP and its associated procedures to include recovery elements; and
• outlines mitigation measures, management actions and resources required for effective planning and implementation throughout the various stages of emergency management.

This section inter-relates with a number of other Anglo American standards and policies that support Anglo American’s vision of zero harm, including:

• Anglo American Emergency Management Standard and associated specifications;
• Group Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Way;
• Anglo American Mineral Residue Facilities and Water Management Structures Standard;
• Anglo American Tailings Management Policy;
• Integrated Risk Management Policy and Framework;
• Operational Risk Management (ORM) Standard and Specification;
• Group Resilience Policy;
• Group Crisis Communications Policy;
• Control Framework for Crisis Management;
• Climate Risk and Adaptation in Operations Recommended Practice; and
• SSD Group Leaning from Incidents Standard.

Intended users

Emergency management requires an inter-disciplinary approach to preparedness, response and recovery. This section includes guidance on the social performance aspects of emergency management planning.

The intended users of this section are the Social Performance, Government Relations, SD, Safety Health and Environment (SHE), Communications, Emergency Response (ER) coordinators and Security teams with responsibility for emergency planning, response, and recovery. The roles and responsibilities of the intended users are described in Section 4D.3. It should be noted that roles and responsibilities may vary depending on the internal capacity of the site to respond to emergencies, the nature and extent of site-induced emergencies, as well as the stages of emergency management.

Additionally, as part of Anglo American’s commitment to zero harm, general concepts of emergency management should be understood by all site employees, site contractors and key external stakeholders.

Relevance to other sections

Emergency preparedness, response and recovery planning is supported by other guidance in the Social Way Toolkit.

• Governance (Section 1):
  • Social Performance Management Committee (SPMC) – The SPMC is the primary vehicle for ensuring cross-functional collaboration in developing, implementing and monitoring the EMP and its associated procedures as these relate to site-induced emergencies that could impact on external stakeholders.
• Review and planning (Section 2):
  • The site's environmental and social baseline, internal and external context review, and systemic vulnerability assessment provide information that is critical for the development of the EMP and associated procedures. The site’s EMP should be referred to in the site’s Social Management Plan (SMP).
• Engagement and assessment (Section 3):
  1. Stakeholder Engagement (3A) – Engagement, consultation and awareness raising related to site-induced emergencies that can impact external stakeholders should be incorporated into the site’s Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP). Key external stakeholders include, but are not limited to, emergency responders, relevant government authorities and affected communities. Key stakeholders may vary for each potential emergency scenario and emergency stage, and should be identified and engaged to co-develop and prepare for emergency response and recovery efforts.
  2. Incident and Grievance Management (3B) – Incidents / emergencies that could or do impact on external stakeholders should be investigated as per the Learning from Incidents (LFI) process. In addition, grievances related to safety breaches, negligence or technical faults that could result in site-induced emergencies that could impact external stakeholders should also be investigated as per the Learning from Incidents (LFI) process, including processes for preserving legal privilege where relevant. Learnings from incident investigations should be used to review and update the EMP as needed.
  3. Social and Human Rights Risk and Impact Analysis (SHIRA) (3C) – the Operational Risk Management (ORM) process is used to assess potential adverse impacts on external stakeholders caused by a site-induced emergency. These should be reviewed annually, or more frequently if there is a material change to the social, environmental, or economic context or to the internal context (such as the tailings facility, pipelines, waste rock dumps, etc.), or if there’s been a relevant incident.
• Impact and risk prevention and management (Section 4):

  • A. Socio-Economic Development (SED) (4A) – Building community resilience to aid recover or respond to site-induced emergencies is part of SED and should follow the SED approach outlined in Section 4A. During emergency management efforts, strong coordination with SED is required, in particular with regards to recovery planning.

    C. Community Health and Safety Management (4C) ‒ Important information for emergency preparedness is generated through Section 4C. For example, local capacity for emergency preparedness and response is a critical community health and safety topic. In addition, site-induced emergencies can have adverse impacts on community health and safety, for example physical injury, mental health impacts and/or health impacts due to short, medium- and long-term environmental impacts (e.g. water contamination).

    F. Land Access, Displacement and Resettlement (4F) – Certain site-induced emergencies may result in economic or physical displacement. These emergency scenarios and their potential displacement impacts should be captured in the Land Access and Displacement Strategy (LADS) in accordance with Section 4F. Should an emergency result in permanent loss of residence or livelihoods, or there is a decision that affected households should be permanently relocated, then the requirements within Section 4F on Land Acquisition, Displacement and Resettlement must be followed and a Displacement Framework for Emergencies should be developed. In case an emergency is expected to result in permanent physical or economic displacement or the permanent relocation of households, the requirements of Section 4F will be triggered, resulting in the development, implementation and close out of a Recovery Resettlement Plan for Emergencies, supported by a Resettlement Project team. See Section 4D Tool 4 for more information on the Displacement Framework for Emergencies.

Definitions

Emergency: Several definitions of an emergency exist. In general, an emergency is defined as a serious, sudden, unexpected, unplanned/unscheduled, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action.

Emergency Management Cycle: The management of an emergency is generally considered to have a four-phase lifecycle consisting of the following:

• Preparedness: Making arrangements, creating and testing plans, training, educating and sharing information and skills to prepare external stakeholders should an emergency eventuate. Preparedness measures should be applied continuously. Actions to mitigate risks are undertaken in advance of an emergency. A prevention lens should be applied to all emergency management activities.
• Response: The assistance and intervention during or immediately after an emergency. Focus is on saving lives and protecting community assets (buildings, roads, animals, crops, and infrastructure). The response phase can stretch over hours, days or weeks.
• Restoration (part of Recovery): Restoration is the process of assisting/enabling the recovery of the social, environmental and local economic systems that have been degraded, damaged or destroyed as a result of an emergency. Usually measured in months or years.
• Reconstruction (part of Recovery): The coordinated process of supporting communities affected by a site-induced emergency in reconstruction of physical infrastructure.

Emergency Management Plan: A site-specific emergency management plan (EMP) is required to be developed, implemented and maintained in order to effectively prevent, prepare, respond, and recover in the event of all foreseeable emergencies (see Emergency Management Response Plan Specifications (AATS-703-001). The EMP is an integrated plan that includes all aspects related to both on-site preparation as well as preparation with external stakeholders. In South Africa, the EMP is the equivalent of the MCOP on Emergency Preparedness and Response.

Hazard: A source of potential harm to people, assets, the environment, communities, reputation or business processes. The environmental term, “aspect” is synonymous with hazard.

Incident: An event that could or does result in harm to people, property, the environment, the community, reputation or business process.

Priority Unwanted Event: A "PUE" is any event with a maximum consequence rating of either 4 or 5 (high and major) on the Operational Risk Management risk matrix.

Recovery: Recovery is the restoration and improvement, where appropriate, of facilities, environment, housing, livelihoods and living conditions of disaster-affected communities, including efforts to reduce disaster risk factors. In addition, see Box 4D.2.

Simulation: Simulation exercises are designed to test the emergency response capabilities and procedures contained in the Emergency Management Plan. They offer the opportunity to evaluate response procedures and adapt and update the plan to reflect the outcome of any learnings as a result of the simulation. Simulations can take the following forms:

Desktop exercises: A desktop exercise or simulation is a facilitated exercise that describes an emergency event in a narrative form. It provides an opportunity to review the roles of departments and individuals, and the actions they would take during an emergency event. In desktops, hypothetical scenarios are discussed in depth and participants provide verbal responses to situations. These types of exercises usually occur at a strategic level and incorporate the brainstorming method.

Functional exercise, including drills: Functional simulations require participants to complete the actions their emergency procedures require. A fire drill that requires people evacuating to an assembly point or refuge station is a standard example of a functional simulation. The scenario can take place with groups located at different areas of the worksite, communicating by radio or phone, or responding to an alarm system. Ideally, a functional simulation will take place in the same area that the given emergency would occur. It has a time component and requires a controller, participants, and evaluators. A well-run functional simulation will determine strengths and weaknesses in established procedures and test the readiness of people and equipment. The planning and execution of these simulations will be undertaken following the processes in the Emergency Response Training and Simulations Specifications.

Full-Scale Emergency Simulations: Full-scale simulations are functional simulations on a much larger scale. They test the entire emergency plan and procedures. The simulations require participants to respond to a realistic simulated emergency often in a highly stressful environment. The planning and execution of these simulations will be undertaken in accordance with the processes in the Emergency Response Training and Simulations Specifications.

Site-induced Emergencies: An emergency caused by site activities or stemming from a failure on site.

Trigger Actions Response Plan: A plan that describes the normal operating condition(s) for a key factor(s) associated with a critical control or activity and a series of escalating variances from this/these normal operating condition(s). For each variance, a trigger for action and responsibilities for key personnel are defined.

Relevant international standards

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) Performance Standards, the World Bank General Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Guidelines, the Awareness and Preparedness for Emergencies at Local Level (APELL) methodology of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Industry Standard for Tailings Management (GISTM), and the International Council for Mining and Minerals’ (ICMM) Good Practice Guide on Tailings Management are applicable and have been incorporated into the development of this section. Practitioners implementing this Section do not need to consult these external standards during emergency management planning as the key tasks within this Section align to these standards.

IFC Performance Standards 1 and 4 require all sites to establish and maintain an emergency preparedness and response system so that the company is able to respond to emergency situations associated with its site(s) to prevent and mitigate harm to workers, local communities, and/or the environment. Emergency preparedness and response plans and activities should be documented and based on the risks to community health and safety identified during the risk and impact identification process. The IFC Performance Standards and the World Bank EHS Guidelines provide an overview of the information an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan should contain. This includes guidance on developing emergency plans in collaboration and consultation with potentially affected communities, governments, and other stakeholders; and requires training programmes and practice exercises to be conducted at least annually to test equipment, plans, protocols and systems to ensure an adequate level of emergency preparedness.

The IFC Performance Standards require that appropriate information about the nature and extent of environmental and human health effects that may result from emergencies at the site or caused by site-related activities is provided to potentially affected communities, relevant government agencies, emergency services, and other relevant parties. In addition, the Performance Standards state that information campaigns should describe appropriate behaviour and safety measures in the event of an emergency. Affected community and other stakeholders should be included in regular training exercises to familiarise them with proper procedures in the event of an emergency that may have an impact on them.

The Emergency Response section of the World Bank EHS Guidelines for Mining refers to the UNEP APELL process, which sets out a 10-step process required for the development of an integrated and functional emergency response plan involving local communities, governments, emergency responders, and others.

Recovery planning implementation has been aligned with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) and UNISDR’s Build Back Better Guidance to enhance the importance of understanding disaster risk and disaster preparedness for effective response and recovery. This was underpinned by the United Nations Post Disaster Recovery: Guidelines and Good Practices, advising on utilizing local-level recovery and participatory approaches as well as building new structures, including consensus with stakeholders, and the UNDP Guidance Note on Disaster Recovery advising on an inclusive (minorities) stakeholder approach to enable rapid and sustainable recovery efforts.

As a member of the ICMM, Anglo American has committed to the GISTM and Section 4D follows the guidance in ICMM’s Good Practice Guide on Tailings Management. The ICMM’s GISTM requires sites to prepare emergency response to tailings facility failures and prepare long-term recovery in the event of a catastrophic failure.