11 Social Licence to Operate in the Energy Transition Era …
345
has been an evolution from the voluntary application of different categories of industry standards to the application of legally binding SLO
requirements which are stakeholder-led and mandated by statute.
In response to the trend, East African governments have attempted
to provide for issues concerning SLO in their sector legislation. For
instance, in all the East Africa environmental legislation, environmental
impact assessment (EIA) studies are required to include aspects of social
impact assessment and are also required to include public participation
by affected stakeholders. In Kenya, the new Petroleum Act 2019 requires
oil and gas licensees to include comprehensive community development
plans in their project development plans.
13 The Petroleum Act, 2015 of
Tanzania introduced guidelines that require companies to obtain an SLO
to operate.
14 These and other legislative interventions will be discussed
in Sect. 11.3 of this Paper.
The main challenge with the laws on SLO in East Africa is that
generally, the legislation is fairly recent, and regulations are still being
formulated. Further, there is insufficient enforcement caused by insufficient financial resources and governance issues. As such, companies
in the private sector are increasingly implementing corporate social
responsibility (CSR) programmes geared towards achieving SLO. There
is also increasing pressure on companies and Government from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations and
private sector member organizations. For instance, in 2007, the World
Bank Group published its Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines (WB-EHS Guidelines) for reference on technical issues during
project appraisal. The WB-EHS Guidelines apply to all World Bankfunded projects and are technical reference documents with general and
industry-specific examples of Good International Industry Practice. The
WB-EHS Guidelines have a detailed section on community health and
13 ‘The Petroleum Act, 2019’ (Kplc.co.ke, 2019). https://kplc.co.ke/img/full/WiUDxtboLpSw_
Petroleum%20Act%202019.pdf, accessed 18 May 2020.
14 ‘The Petroleum Act, 2015’ (Teiti.or.tz, 2015). http://www.teiti.or.tz/wpcontent/uploads/2014/
03/The-Petroleum-Act-2015.pdf, accessed 18 May 2020.
345
has been an evolution from the voluntary application of different categories of industry standards to the application of legally binding SLO
requirements which are stakeholder-led and mandated by statute.
In response to the trend, East African governments have attempted
to provide for issues concerning SLO in their sector legislation. For
instance, in all the East Africa environmental legislation, environmental
impact assessment (EIA) studies are required to include aspects of social
impact assessment and are also required to include public participation
by affected stakeholders. In Kenya, the new Petroleum Act 2019 requires
oil and gas licensees to include comprehensive community development
plans in their project development plans.
13 The Petroleum Act, 2015 of
Tanzania introduced guidelines that require companies to obtain an SLO
to operate.
14 These and other legislative interventions will be discussed
in Sect. 11.3 of this Paper.
The main challenge with the laws on SLO in East Africa is that
generally, the legislation is fairly recent, and regulations are still being
formulated. Further, there is insufficient enforcement caused by insufficient financial resources and governance issues. As such, companies
in the private sector are increasingly implementing corporate social
responsibility (CSR) programmes geared towards achieving SLO. There
is also increasing pressure on companies and Government from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations and
private sector member organizations. For instance, in 2007, the World
Bank Group published its Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines (WB-EHS Guidelines) for reference on technical issues during
project appraisal. The WB-EHS Guidelines apply to all World Bankfunded projects and are technical reference documents with general and
industry-specific examples of Good International Industry Practice. The
WB-EHS Guidelines have a detailed section on community health and
13 ‘The Petroleum Act, 2019’ (Kplc.co.ke, 2019). https://kplc.co.ke/img/full/WiUDxtboLpSw_
Petroleum%20Act%202019.pdf, accessed 18 May 2020.
14 ‘The Petroleum Act, 2015’ (Teiti.or.tz, 2015). http://www.teiti.or.tz/wpcontent/uploads/2014/
03/The-Petroleum-Act-2015.pdf, accessed 18 May 2020.