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Building Forward Better: Mining as a Partner in Supporting More Inclusive and Resilient Societies

3 September 2020

ICMM, Business Fights Poverty and The Partnering Initiative, in consultation with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Corporate Responsibility Initiative, developed the Building Forward Better Framework in 2020 during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • The Framework is a practical tool for mining and other companies, to assess their own activities through examples, case-studies and resources. It has been developed with the aim of encouraging learning and thinking about mining’s collective role in supporting communities through the immediate and long-term phases of COVID-19.
  • Three key areas for action are identified in the Framework. These are lives (health and safety), livelihoods (jobs and income) and learning (education and skills). Through these lenses, companies can identify practical actions to take across their core business activities, community investment programmes and policy engagement, that support community rebuilding and resilience.
  • It also outlines four key leadership imperatives and principles for action. They are:
  1. Aligning short-term responses with long-term resilience.
  2. Developing a mindset for transformation.
  3. Contributing to system-level impact.
  4. Communication, coordination and collaboration.
  • The Building Forward Better Framework was created collaboratively, using the solid foundation of Business Fights Poverty and the Harvard Kennedy School’s existing Business COVID-19 Framework. It incorporates ICMM’s practical knowledge and learnings from its members’ COVID-19 responses to specifically tailor the Framework to the mining sector.
  • Through the publication of this Framework, we hope to foster and encourage closer collaboration and engagement beyond the mining sector to help drive real change. To reflect this, the Framework is freely available for all to use on the ICMM, Business Fights Poverty and The Partnering Initiative websites.