120
8 Participants’ Recommendations for O&G Social Investment
8.3 Engaging with the Government
The majority of the social investment experts considered engaging with the government to be a critical component of constructive, participatory social investment (see
Chapter 6). However, participants’ views on how to best engage with the host governments were diverse, and often conflicting. In this section, I discuss how participants’
spoke about engaging with the government into two sections: (1) experts’ recommendations with respect to partnering with the government, and (2) experts’ beliefs
about the role of the government in supporting O&G social investment.
8.3.1 Partnering with the Government
As already mentioned, participants recommended that O&G companies partner with
the host government in order to assist, rather than substitute, with the government
in delivering its social services. However, participants also recognised the risk of
governments’ absence in the design, implementation, and provision of O&G social
investment.
Social investment experts attributed communities’ expectations of O&G social
investment to the lack of basic social service provision by many host governments.
The following quotes represented interviewees’ sense of companies being coerced
to provide social services instead of governments:
The difficulties are that in many times the government is absent, right? They invest the tax
revenues in other places/cities and the host community ends up just having the company
to rely on. In this sense, the company is the only actor there and you cannot force the
government to sit at the table [and talk to the community]. We have had cases where the
community closed ports and took over O&G companies in order to make the company put
pressure in the government to make them develop a plan for the community. Actually, O&G
companies become a hostage [of the circumstances] in order to make the government fulfil
its roles. (P11, social investment expert, translated)
P11’s interview excerpt illustrated how companies can be caught between communities’ expectations for basic social services and governments’ failure to provide
these services. According to P11, the tension between the host communities’ expectations and the government’s absence made her/him feel as though the company was
pressured to provide the missing services.
P4 made a similar point: “You see, the government is not playing its primary role
and that puts the pressure on O&G companies to try to increase social investment in
these areas”. P4’s feelings of being pressured to shape social investment according
to the gaps left by the government were also noted by P5. However, P5 thought that
when this happened, companies and governments should partner together in order to
make sure companies supported governments’ development plans for their countries:
I think they [the government/the community] are bringing a role for us to play. And supporting
the communities, especially in the areas where we operate, but sometimes we get into situations where there is sort of an absence of basic service delivery and I think that is really
8 Participants’ Recommendations for O&G Social Investment
8.3 Engaging with the Government
The majority of the social investment experts considered engaging with the government to be a critical component of constructive, participatory social investment (see
Chapter 6). However, participants’ views on how to best engage with the host governments were diverse, and often conflicting. In this section, I discuss how participants’
spoke about engaging with the government into two sections: (1) experts’ recommendations with respect to partnering with the government, and (2) experts’ beliefs
about the role of the government in supporting O&G social investment.
8.3.1 Partnering with the Government
As already mentioned, participants recommended that O&G companies partner with
the host government in order to assist, rather than substitute, with the government
in delivering its social services. However, participants also recognised the risk of
governments’ absence in the design, implementation, and provision of O&G social
investment.
Social investment experts attributed communities’ expectations of O&G social
investment to the lack of basic social service provision by many host governments.
The following quotes represented interviewees’ sense of companies being coerced
to provide social services instead of governments:
The difficulties are that in many times the government is absent, right? They invest the tax
revenues in other places/cities and the host community ends up just having the company
to rely on. In this sense, the company is the only actor there and you cannot force the
government to sit at the table [and talk to the community]. We have had cases where the
community closed ports and took over O&G companies in order to make the company put
pressure in the government to make them develop a plan for the community. Actually, O&G
companies become a hostage [of the circumstances] in order to make the government fulfil
its roles. (P11, social investment expert, translated)
P11’s interview excerpt illustrated how companies can be caught between communities’ expectations for basic social services and governments’ failure to provide
these services. According to P11, the tension between the host communities’ expectations and the government’s absence made her/him feel as though the company was
pressured to provide the missing services.
P4 made a similar point: “You see, the government is not playing its primary role
and that puts the pressure on O&G companies to try to increase social investment in
these areas”. P4’s feelings of being pressured to shape social investment according
to the gaps left by the government were also noted by P5. However, P5 thought that
when this happened, companies and governments should partner together in order to
make sure companies supported governments’ development plans for their countries:
I think they [the government/the community] are bringing a role for us to play. And supporting
the communities, especially in the areas where we operate, but sometimes we get into situations where there is sort of an absence of basic service delivery and I think that is really