Community Programs
Community programs are operated at four levels across the Company – local, provincial or regional, national and global.
The majority of our efforts occur locally at our operations where our businesses implement programs to develop and support the communities close to us.
At our operations, the asset manager and/or local community relations professionals are responsible for managing their community support programs, operating within the parameters of our Charter, Guide to Business Conduct and the HSEC Management Standards. Sites around the world operate their local community programs in different ways. Most sites have a formal decision-making group to receive proposals from community organisations and determine which of these is appropriate to support. These committees generally comprise employees and management and often involve community representation.
The Corporate Function of the Company also operates on a provincial and national level in countries where we have a number of businesses and play a major role in the resources sector of that country – examples include South Africa, Australia and Chile. These programs generally focus on a small number of larger-scale projects that are of interest to the broader community within the country of interest.
Further details on our community programs are included in our biannual Community Programs Report, 'Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow'.
Corporate Foundations
Where BHP Billiton's presence in a country is significant, we often provide support for provincial or national programs in addition to local activities. In many of these instances, community foundations have been established. These foundations include external representation to ensure a full understanding of the community's needs and an ability to identify appropriate projects to address the issues.
Examples of foundations include:
- The Minera Escondida Foundation in Chile has a founding mission to contribute to improving the quality of life of low-income groups, principally in Antofagasta and the Second Region but also nationally.
- The Tintaya Foundation in Peru is an independent non-profit organisation created with the support of our Tintaya copper operation. The main purpose of the Foundation is to promote and improve self-management and participation processes in the communities within Tintaya's area of influence, thus contributing to their sustainable development.
- The San Isidro Foundation in Colombia is an independent body supported by our Cerro Matoso nickel operation. The Foundation aims to improve the quality of life of the communities within the business's area of influence by focusing its efforts on building a robust local economy that will continue to develop and thrive beyond the life of the Cerro Matoso operation.
- The Montelíbano Educational Foundation in Colombia focuses on education provision for Cerro Matoso employees and their families and also provides places for students from the surrounding communities.
- The BHP Billiton Development Trust in South Africa implements, coordinates and manages the Company's corporate sustainable development initiatives and those of our operations, such as Samancor Manganese, Ingwe Coal and BHP Billiton Aluminium, which participate in the Trust.
- The BHP Billiton Community Trust focuses on national programs in Australia in the areas of community development, education, health and environment. Programs are generally supported for up to three year periods.
- The Mozal Community Development Trust in Mozambique was created in August 2002 by the shareholders of Mozal to fulfil the corporate social responsibilities of the Mozal smelter. Support focuses on five key development areas defined by the Board of Trustees, namely small business development, education and training, health and environment, sport and culture, and community infrastructure.
- The BHP Billiton SEWA Society (referred to as the BHP Billiton India Development Foundation) was established in early 2005 to invest in the development of human and social capabilities in India. While the first projects are in Orissa, attention will be given to Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in the coming year. Areas of focus include education, health, rural development and integration of indigenous peoples in development and respecting and preserving indigenous peoples' cultural and natural heritage.
Because the Company operates in many different countries and cultures, we do not administer our community programs under one set of guidelines. Consideration is generally given, however, to the following principles:
- Sustainability. Initiatives that will be sustainable beyond the life of the project are preferred, and we are careful to avoid creating dependency on our support. For example, by building an organisation’s capacity through training and development, the community benefit can be long lasting and have flow-on benefits long after the program has been completed.
- Community participation and engagement. It is critical that the selection and delivery of community programs is a participative process. Community ownership of development programs is one of the keys to their success.
- Long-term relationships. We are aware that any good working relationship takes time, so rather than getting involved in one-off commitments we generally look to develop longer-term relationships with not-for-profit organisations. This enables a rapport to be established between the organisations and provides an opportunity to explore creative opportunities for the organisations to assist each other, such as through the sharing of skills and knowledge.
- Specific projects. We try to avoid providing general funding where there is no clear identification of how the money is to be spent. Specific projects with agreed objectives assist evaluation and enable the success of the project to be measured.
- Leverage. Projects that leverage our support by attracting additional resources such as government funding are considered favourably. In many cases, capacity building projects or start-up projects will fall into this category.
- Employee involvement. The involvement of our employees in the delivery of community programs adds another important dimension. It enables them to gain a better understanding of the contribution the Company is making to the community, giving them a sense of pride.
- Reporting and evaluation. It is essential that not-for-profit partners are transparent, have good governance structures in place, can develop indicators that clearly demonstrate the outcomes of their programs and are open to independent evaluation of their programs. In this way, we can measure the success of individual programs and convey the value of our involvement to our shareholders and other community stakeholders.
Although not-for-profit organisations require cash to deliver their programs, we recognise that other forms of assistance are highly valued and that many of these can be provided at a relatively small cost to the Company. Where we can, we offer in-kind assistance such as the use of meeting facilities, access to communication networks and business-related expertise and skills.
Employee Matched Giving Program
The Employee Matched Giving Program aims to strengthen local communities by supporting and encouraging employees who volunteer, fundraise or donate to not-for-profit organisations. Through the program we are able to support those not-for-profit community organisations our employees support through their volunteering efforts, fundraising or personal cash donations. The BHP Billiton Matched Giving Program means that BHP Billiton increases employee community contributions, by giving a ‘matching’ amount to the not-for-profit organisations its employees support.
Read more: Community Programs>Our Performance>Employee Matched Giving Program.
