There are no short cuts or easy solutions to dealing with community grievances and disputes arising from mining or extraction says the Fiji Council of Social Services.
Council executive director, Vani Catanasiga shared the sentiments after presenting to the UNDP-organised’’Addressing grievances and disputes from the Development Mineral’’ Capacity Building Workshop in Nadi yesterday.
Catanasiga presented on “Free, Prior, Informed Consent – A proactive approach to dealing with community grievances and disputes in extraction”.
She says while development stakeholders favour a faster and more efficient approach to dealing with community grievances and disputes, this approach undermined the community’s right to decide on projects that could affect them adversely.
Working to obtain Free, Prior and Informed Consent or FPIC is about involving communities the right way so that development can have a lasting and positive legacy for both communities and companies she adds.
Catanasiga says FPIC is emerging as a best practice approach for people centred development around the world because it promotes the inclusion of all communities that will be affected by proposed development projects.
