Communities around the world continue to bear the brunt of harmful land-based investments, from environmental degradation to violations of their rights. Despite the growing recognition that companies must manage their social and environmental impacts, the current system of corporate-community engagement often falls short. Both businesses and communities are left frustrated, with unresolved conflicts, project delays, and unmet expectations. What can be done to bridge this critical gap?
Namati has seen this first hand – with our country teams and across the network. That’s why in 2015, Namati successfully advocated for a legal assistance fund in Sierra Leone’s national land policy, requiring private sector contributions to support communities facing land-based investments. However, political challenges delayed its full implementation. Since then, Namati consulted with hundreds of frontline justice workers, project developers, and investors, to brainstorm how to solve this problem in a manner that would meet all the different stakeholder needs. What we heard was the need to create a pooled fund that would allow communities to access independent technical support while reducing the risks for corporations operating in contexts with less informed communities.
In 2023, Namati partnered with Rights CoLab and Just Ground to further test the idea in joint workshops with civil society and private sector representatives, resulting in a framework for the fund’s core principles and design.
The brief argues that such a fund would help level the playing field between companies and communities, allowing both sides to engage more effectively and address the challenges of land-based investments.
The Challenge: Misaligned Engagement: Businesses recognize that community engagement is crucial for the success of their projects. However, the current approach is often flawed. Companies rely on external consultants who may lack local knowledge or community trust, while communities themselves may not fully understand the corporate processes or their legal rights. As a result, harmful impacts go unaddressed, leading to conflicts and significant operational risks because the fundamental issue persists: communities lack the resources and expertise to engage effectively, while companies struggle to meet their human rights obligations. Research shows that companies rated poorly on Indigenous rights are up to 66 times more likely to face operational halts or legal issues than those with strong engagement processes.
To address these gaps, it is important to create a pooled fund – an independent grant-making facility that provides grassroots organizations with the resources to offer legal and technical support to affected communities. This approach ensures that communities can access the information and expertise they need to participate in negotiations, understand project risks, and make informed decisions. The fund operates on the principles of independence and credibility. Unlike current models where companies directly hire consultants, this fund would be governed by an independent committee, ensuring that communities receive unbiased support free from corporate influence. By contributing to the fund, companies can also avoid conflicts of interest while demonstrating their commitment to responsible business practices.
The pooled fund represents a win-win solution. By investing in legal and technical support for communities, companies can avoid costly conflicts and reputational damage, while communities gain the tools, they need to defend their rights and protect their lands. The fund would provide grassroots legal empowerment organizations with the resources to assist communities throughout the project lifecycle – from initial negotiations to grievance redress and monitoring agreements.
To turn this initiative into reality, we are building a coalition of private sector actors, investors, and civil society organizations. Together, we can co-design the fund’s governance and pilot projects that test the model’s effectiveness in different sectors, such as carbon, palm oil, mining, and agribusiness. By pooling resources, the fund would support communities in addressing critical social risks, strengthening corporate social responsibility, and ultimately ensuring a more equitable investment landscape.