7.1 Contextualising the Guideline Documents
93
within and outside the O&G sector (IFC website, n.d.). Companies funded by the
IFC that do not comply with the Performance Standards may suffer IFC’s imposed
penalties.
The World Bank Group Community-Driven Principles, although not a safeguardpolicy document, was developed by the World Bank Group in partnership with the
United Nations to encourage clients, such as O&G companies, to adopt povertyreduction principles. The Community-Driven Principles is the ninth chapter of the
first volume of the Sourcebook for Poverty Reduction Strategies, published by the
World Bank Group in 2002. This sourcebook aims to provide a framework for
programmes designed to tackle poverty in low-income countries (WBG, 2002).
Although the Community-Driven Principles is not a compliance instrument, the
World Bank Group highly recommends that companies adopt these Principles (WBG
website, n.d.).
World Bank Group Community-Driven Principles aims to reduce poverty, which
means that whenever it refers to ‘communities’, it refers to ‘the poor’. Because the
social investment experts in my study had chosen this specific document to guide
their interactions with communities, and social investment, in the remainder of the
chapter, I read the ‘poor’ as referring to ‘community’. However, I am aware that not
all communities affected by O&G operations are impoverished
I now demonstrate how participants’ social investment ideals expressed via
working with discourses relate to the banks’ stated ideals for companies’ actions.
In the following segment, I briefly define working with discourses and investigate how they emerged in the guidelines’ statements, descriptions, principles and
recommendations.
7.2 The Guideline Documents and Working with Discourses
of Social Investment
As noted in Chapter 6, working with discourses reveals a construction of ‘ideal’ social
investment as developed through a community-centred, participatory approach.
However, a participatory approach to social investment, multiple actors take part in
the decision-making, design and implementation of the social programme. There are
expectations that power is equally distributed and all actors exercise agency over the
social investment. The Performance Standards and the Community-Driven Principles present text segments that, at face value, advocate for a participatory framework
when referring to companies’ social investment. The following is an analysis of how
these discursive fragments seem to illustrate elements of working with discourses in
the two documents but do not consistently reproduce these discourses.
The Community-Driven Principles advocates for a participatory approach in social
investment design, implementation, and maintenance. The document not only specifies communities’ involvement as central in the process of developing and implementing social investment, but also additional actors such as “local or municipal
93
within and outside the O&G sector (IFC website, n.d.). Companies funded by the
IFC that do not comply with the Performance Standards may suffer IFC’s imposed
penalties.
The World Bank Group Community-Driven Principles, although not a safeguardpolicy document, was developed by the World Bank Group in partnership with the
United Nations to encourage clients, such as O&G companies, to adopt povertyreduction principles. The Community-Driven Principles is the ninth chapter of the
first volume of the Sourcebook for Poverty Reduction Strategies, published by the
World Bank Group in 2002. This sourcebook aims to provide a framework for
programmes designed to tackle poverty in low-income countries (WBG, 2002).
Although the Community-Driven Principles is not a compliance instrument, the
World Bank Group highly recommends that companies adopt these Principles (WBG
website, n.d.).
World Bank Group Community-Driven Principles aims to reduce poverty, which
means that whenever it refers to ‘communities’, it refers to ‘the poor’. Because the
social investment experts in my study had chosen this specific document to guide
their interactions with communities, and social investment, in the remainder of the
chapter, I read the ‘poor’ as referring to ‘community’. However, I am aware that not
all communities affected by O&G operations are impoverished
I now demonstrate how participants’ social investment ideals expressed via
working with discourses relate to the banks’ stated ideals for companies’ actions.
In the following segment, I briefly define working with discourses and investigate how they emerged in the guidelines’ statements, descriptions, principles and
recommendations.
7.2 The Guideline Documents and Working with Discourses
of Social Investment
As noted in Chapter 6, working with discourses reveals a construction of ‘ideal’ social
investment as developed through a community-centred, participatory approach.
However, a participatory approach to social investment, multiple actors take part in
the decision-making, design and implementation of the social programme. There are
expectations that power is equally distributed and all actors exercise agency over the
social investment. The Performance Standards and the Community-Driven Principles present text segments that, at face value, advocate for a participatory framework
when referring to companies’ social investment. The following is an analysis of how
these discursive fragments seem to illustrate elements of working with discourses in
the two documents but do not consistently reproduce these discourses.
The Community-Driven Principles advocates for a participatory approach in social
investment design, implementation, and maintenance. The document not only specifies communities’ involvement as central in the process of developing and implementing social investment, but also additional actors such as “local or municipal