Safeguarding civic space

Communities sit at the heart of extraction and must benefit from mining and infrastructure projects.

In the mining sector, local communities are often the first to face challenges and risks and the ones who live with the long-term impacts when projects end, fail, or are poorly governed.

When done well - where civic space is protected - strong community engagement processes can strengthen consensus, improve project design, reduce conflict throughout the project lifecycle, and enhance outcomes and benefits for all stakeholder groups.

Meaningful community engagement is a core condition for legitimacy, accountability and fair outcomes, especially where projects intersect with Indigenous and local community lands, livelihoods and biodiversity sensitive sites.

Key resource

Our briefing paper, Making Participation Count: A Briefing Paper on Meaningful Community Engagement in the Energy Transition, is structured around six interlinked areas that move from foundational principles to practical risks and safeguards, and provides practical guidance for engagement with communities across the renewable energy value chain.

It addresses inclusion and gender inequality as cross-cutting factors shaping participation, impacts, and accountability, and summarises the international frameworks that underpin access to information, participation, and remedy.

The paper provides recommendations for governments, mining companies and civil society to support them to design and implement measures to reduce gender inequality and corruption across the renewable energy value chain and minimise the gendered impacts of corruption to ensure an energy transition that is just and equitable.

Global snapshots, local stories

The AMP operates at the global level, engaging with international partners and participates in relevant global forums and initiatives to strengthen resources governance and accountability; as well as at the local and sub-national level, engaging through partnerships with over 23 TI chapters to identify corruption risks, improve transparency, and elevate local perspectives in decision-making.

Impact stories from Transparency International colleagues in Cambodia, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe describe the work to support local community voices and environmental management in mining affected communities.

TI Australia has produced a guide to help community members in Victoria, Australia understand how mining proposals are approved, their rights, and how to have their say effectively.