By Ana Dilaverakis
Transport is key to economic development. It provides physical networks that enable the movement of people and goods, and it triggers trade and tourism. But a new road or even a metro line can also shake up people’s lives with neighbourhoods, workplaces and homes disturbed by new infrastructure.
Stakeholder engagement ensures that the benefits of transport projects are not achieved at significant environment and social costs. It is a continuous process that is most effective when initiated at an early stage of the project. It is an integral part of the assessment, management and monitoring of environmental and social risks and impacts of the project.
At the European Investment Bank, stakeholder engagement identifies people and communities that are or could be affected by a project as well as other interested parties, ensuring that they’re appropriately engaged. Stakeholders might include:
- NGOs
- Customers
- Affected communities
- Employees
- Government agencies.
Stakeholder engagement is a very challenging task. Understanding the problem—where the affected persons come from, their culture, their fears and their needs—and finding adequate solutions. All this is key to effective engagement and thus an effective completion of the project.
The European Investment Bank sets a policy context for the promotion of sustainable development through the environmental and social standards, which are grouped across 10 thematic areas. The standards aim to achieve the Bank’s sustainability objectives and outline the borrower’s responsibilities in applying the standards to EIB projects.
It’s also important to note that some individuals or groups may be less resilient to the adverse impacts of a project. People who have been subject to discrimination, financial, cultural and/or gender inequalities might be more dependent on their environment or have limited (perhaps even no) access to justice and decision-making. That creates a weaker adaptive capacity for coping with project risks and recovering from project impacts. These groups of people are often referred to as vulnerable groups.
Within the vulnerable groups we often find indigenous peoples. Indigenous people have identities and aspirations that are distinct from mainstream groups in national societies and often are disadvantaged by traditional models of development.
Indigenous people are stakeholders in Honduras
In Honduras, the government made improving the quality and safety of the road network a high priority as part of its development plan for the next two decades.
The modernisation and rehabilitation of the Western Corridor was particularly important, as it connects San Pedro Sula, the second-biggest city and the country’s industrial capital, with Guatemala and El Salvador. The benefits were expected to be significant. It would promote tourism and enhance economic activity, as well as improving living conditions of the local communities in one of the poorest and most deprived regions in Honduras. That’s why the European Investment Bank made a €79.5 million loan and brought €3 million in technical assistance to the project.
Nevertheless, the project affected an estimated 740 households, including some 180 families that would be physically displaced or economically affected. Moreover, the area where the project takes place is home to about 40 000 indigenous Ch’ortí people. The Ch’ortí are primarily dependent on agriculture and provide seasonal labour for large coffee estates and the tourism trade. Women also contribute to the economic activity through craftwork and artisanal products.
Most of the Ch’ortí people live in extreme poverty and have a lower literacy than average in Honduras. Nearly 50% are unemployed and in general, they have poor healthcare access.
To support this, an EU-funded technical assistance grant was made available to the project and, in view of the sensitivity of the indigenous people, it was agreed to recruit an experienced consultant responsible for relations with indigenous people. With the help of the consultant, a very proactive consultation took place, which informed the Ch’ortis of the details of the project. The Ch’ortí soon expressed a rather positive view of the project and recognised that the road project would bring them significant benefits.
This led to the preparation of the Indigenous People Development Plan, setting out mitigation and benefit-sharing measures. These included the upgrading of 56 kilometres of rural roads, so that the Ch’ortí communities have:
- improved, climate-resilient access through the main road network to public services and economic centres
- agricultural support for the indigenous communities
- support for women artisans and preferential hiring of Ch’ortís as labourers for the construction of the roads.
A wider community with stakeholder engagement
Stakeholder engagement goes beyond transparency obligations. It includes civil society and the wider stakeholder community, allowing them to analyse the projects, the governance and decision-making processes. It increases trust in everything we do.
Ana Dilaverakis works in the Strategic Roads division of the European Investment Bank