| CODE | SOC5030 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | SIA Standards and Monitoring | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Sociology | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | This study-unit will acquaint students with the national and international standards which entities planning an intervention need to observe, how they are applied and issues surrounding compliance, as well as with the process of monitoring an intervention throughout its life course. The study-unit will cover the conditions and requirements which legislation and international bodies lay out for a business to acquire a social licence to operate and/or for successful funding of the project. Such standards and guidelines often go beyond national legislation, as they are set by international industry associations (ICMM, IPIECA) or funding bodies such as development or commercial banking institutions (EBRD, IFC, World Bank, AFDB), including high-level principles such as the Equator Principles and operational principles such as the IFC’s performance standards. Issues related to human rights in the conduct of a planned intervention by businesses will be covered, with particular attention to the UNGP’s standards for human rights observance. The study-unit will also reflect on the notion of social impact monitoring. Rather than treating SIAs as an ex-ante and mitigation tool, the unit will lay emphasis on a processual approach to SIA, in which SIA practitioners monitor the impact over the life of the intervention. This involves a process of ‘follow-up’: a continuous assessment the project’s compliance with the conditions and requirements laid out by the various stakeholders at the onset of the project, as well as monitoring of the potentially unforeseen impacts of a dynamic, changing intervention. Study-Unit Aims: - Acquaint students with standards and guidelines set by national legislation and international bodies for the governance of planned interventions; - Provide a comprehensive approach to SIAs, from ex-ante assessment to monitoring of a given intervention. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Review international standards and assess how they are applied; - Identify standards associated with human rights; - Illustrate the process of conducting due diligence assessments. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Assess an intervention in terms of its compliance with the proper national and international standards; - Develop indicators for monitoring and following-up on an intervention; - Implement procedures to identify the ‘unknown unknowns’. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Esteves, A.M., Factor, G., Vanclay, F., Götzmann, N. and Moreira, S., 2017. Adapting social impact assessment to address a project’s human rights impacts and risks. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 67, pp.73–87. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2017.07.001. - Götzmann, N., Vanclay, F. and Seier, F., 2015. Social and human rights impact assessments: what can they learn from each other?. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 34(1), pp.14–23. doi:10.1080/14615517.2015.1096036. - Kemp, D. and Vanclay, F., 2013. Human rights and impact assessment: clarifying the connections in practice. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 31(2), pp.86–96. doi:10.1080/14615517.2013.782978. Supplementary Readings: - Jijelava, D. and Vanclay, F., 2017. Legitimacy, credibility and trust as the key components of a social licence to operate: An analysis of BP’s projects in Georgia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp.1077–1086. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.070. - United Nations., 2011. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework. United Nations Publications. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf - United Nations, 2012. The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights: An Interpretive Guide. United Nations Publications. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/HR.PUB.12.2_En.pdf - Vanclay and Hanna, 2019. Conceptualizing Company Response to Community Protest: Principles to Achieve a Social License to Operate. Land, 8(6), p.101. doi:10.3390/land8060101. - Veenker, R. and Vanclay, F., 2021. What did NAM do to get a social licence to operate? The social impact history of the Schoonebeek oilfield in the Netherlands. The Extractive Industries and Society, p.100888. doi:10.1016/j.exis.2021.02.008. |
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| ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-requisite Qualifications: Same for Masters in Social Impact Assessment | ||||||||||||
| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Claudette Buttigieg Dylan Cassar |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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