Over the last year, Oxfam reached out to 38 companies and invited them to discuss their FPIC or other community engagement policies with us. We spoke to companies headquartered in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, and South Africa, among other locations. Oxfam developed a spectrum of community engagement applicable to extractive industry projects that ranges from low (one-way information sharing) to high levels (recognition of FPIC). The figure below summarizes companies’ public commitments along the spectrum. All 38 companies in the sample at least commit to consultation or dialogue with communities.

Oxfam recommends that companies:

1. Adopt an explicit and unambiguous policy commitment to FPIC and develop detailed accompanying implementation guidelines, making these publicly available;
2. Extend FPIC commitments to include all project-affected communities, while recognising FPIC as a right under international law for indigenous peoples;
3. Conduct thorough monitoring and evaluation of FPIC processes being implemented and disclose information publicly in a language and form understood by the community while these processes are underway; and
4. Develop clear and overarching commitments to gender that respect the rights of both women and men, provide equal opportunity and equal access to mining benefits for both women and men, and involve both women and men in consultation, negotiation, and decision-making processes.