Inclusive Development International (IDI)
Focus Area:
Legal
Key Lever:
Assurance & pressures, Capacity & incentives, Policy & regulation
Grant Region:
Africa
Grant Country:
Guinea
Grant Start Year:
2024
Project name
Accountability for a Just Energy Transition: Guinea Pilot Project
Project summary
IDI is seeking support for a pilot project in Guinea to create protections for local communities and nature currently at risk of harm due to the proposed expansion of the Compagnie des Bauxite de Guinée (CBG) mine. The project area is the site of the world’s largest bauxite reserve, which is a key source of aluminium.
For the past five years, IDI has been accompanying thirteen communities that have already been severely impacted by CBG’s fifty-year-old mining operation. At the center of this strategy has been a dispute resolution process under the IFC’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, which financed the CBG mine’s last major expansion in 2016.
During this period, IDI has accompanied 26 community representatives in intensive mediations. This has led to the empowerment of communities and improved their relationship with the mine. This has also created a strong foundation for this pilot project including by providing IDI with a deep understanding of the mine’s impacts on communities and the local environment, a trusting partnership with an organized community network, as well as access to CBG’s major investment and supply chain actors. Several large automakers and energy companies have recently told IDI that they are looking to do the right thing and for practical guidance with respect to the mine.
