Creating Value Through Community Partnership: Newmont Social Responsibility Agreement
Realizing the need for active community participation in delivering on its social responsibility obligations, Newmont Golden Ridge Limited and its surrounding communities, in 2014, formed the Akyem Social Responsibility Forum (SRF) to regularly dialogue on how host communities can benefit from the presence of the mine.
The forum, made up of representatives from all the communities, government agencies and Newmont, came up with three main agreements, known as the Forum Agreements.
The Employment Agreement spells out guidelines for employing locals within the mine’s host communities; the Foundation Agreement sets out the terms and conditions under which Newmont Ghana’s Akyem mine will fund the operations of Newmont Akyem Development Foundation (NAkDeF), while the Relationship Agreement details the understanding reached between the company and communities to advance sustainable and economic development of the communities.
These agreements have since been the basis upon which social investments in the communities have been undertaken.
After four years of working with this agreement, Newmont Golden Ridge Limited (Newmont Akyem Mine) and its mine host communities recently reviewed the agreements to enhance the impact of its resource allocation to the communities.
The reviewed agreement, unlike the previous version, is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which encourage prioritized allocations to Education, Agriculture, Health, Water Sanitation and Enterprise Development, etc. The agreement is reviewed periodically by all relevant key stakeholders through an agreed review process.
At the agreement signing ceremony, Felix Apoh, the Akyem Mine’s Senior Manager for Sustainability & External Relations (S&ER), reiterated the need for the parties to continuously dialogue to ensure peaceful co-existence as stated in the agreement document. He added that Newmont will continue to demonstrate its commitment to improving lives through sustainable and responsible mining.
The Social Responsibility Agreement serves as a tool to streamline resource allocation to local communities. For instance, through the employment agreement, the Akyem Mine is required to employ not less than 35% of its total workforce from the local communities, Currently, 44% of the mine’s total workforce are employed from the host communities.
The social responsibility provisions streamline the processes for transferring resources from the mine to local communities to ensure we create value and improve lives.
Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | JTM