Week 6 - People

Some activities within an SIA

The activities when conducting an SIA include, but is not limited to the following:

• Identify stakeholders, groups and communities impacted by the project.
• Collect baseline data covering key social issues of the impacted communities such as community history, indigenous communities, culture and key events that have shaped economic and social development, current and previous key industries within the community.
• Explain the methods used to gather information, including a description of how the communities of interest were engaged during the development of the SIA.
• Identify potential direct social impacts and prediction of the significance, duration and extent of any impacts.
• List proposed mitigation measures.
• Describe the monitoring framework that informs stakeholders on the progress of the project.

It is important to note that social impacts start long before project approval is required – they start with rumours of a possible project. Managing the social issues (and thus SIA), therefore, needs to start as soon as possible – after projects are conceived.