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Community Resilience

Community resilience has never been more important. Current and future disruptions from climate change, automation, and the changing footprint of mining are affecting the ability of communities to take part in opportunities in and beyond mining.

Our work on the Skills for our Common Future initiative will focus on consolidating what we have learnt over the last three years to define a skills agenda to build resilience within the mining sector and host communities for the next decade and beyond. We will also be supporting the roll out of our social and economic reporting framework, which commits members to report against a set of indicators that effectively assess the contribution of mining to social and economic development.

Issue at a Glance

  • Mining operations and the communities and regions that host them are inextricably linked. When change, shocks or momentous events occur that effect these communities – whether or not related to mining activities – the industry can, and often does, play a vital role in supporting them to recover and prosper.
  • In light of disruptions such as COVID-19, the fourth industrial revolution and the energy transition, the mining industry has an opportunity to reconsider what community resilience means and how it can best contribute to it.
  • Through research, we have identified nine factors underpinning community resilience:
    • Local knowledge and engagement
    • Social and cultural networks
    • Communications capacity
    • Physical health of a community
    • Individual resilience and mental outlook
    • Economic vitality and diversity
    • Emergency preparedness
    • Health of the community’s environment
    • Community organisation and leadership.
  • By better understanding these factors, the mining industry can collaborate with key stakeholders (government, other industries, civil society groups and communities) to identify new ways to support more autonomous, less dependent, stronger and more prosperous community–company relationships

Our Priorities

Consolidate Our Knowledge Base

Mining can play an important role in strengthening social and economic resilience in host communities, including through the promotion of diversity and inclusion. Over 2021-2022, we have developed a body of knowledge that supports our understanding on how the mining industry can foster community resilience. We are working to consolidate and distil this knowledge into practical findings and recommendations that will be used to inform the upcoming ‘trial and refine’ phase of our Skills Initiative.


Identify and Commit to Collaborative Opportunities

ICMM’s Skills Initiative aims to accelerate national and regional efforts to drive inclusive economic participation and diversification beyond mining.  We will deliver the initiative through a series of partnerships that leverage the resources of different global, national and local actors to identify best practices, and catalyse the adoption of effective skills planning and training approaches at scale. We will also look to draw on members long experience of working with local communities to inform our approach.


Support Implementation of the Social and Economic Reporting Framework

ICMM’s social and economic reporting framework commits members to report against a set of eight core indicators including on workforce composition, pay equality, wage level, provision of training, country-by-country tax reporting, local procurement, education and skills support, and capacity and institution support. This is the first set of consistent indicators that gives stakeholders comparable data to assess companies’ contribution to social and economic development. ICMM will assist members in integrating framework indicators into existing reporting systems by 2024.