Human Rights, Safety and Community Health

Human Rights

Projects increasingly need to integrate human rights into their social practice. This most often includes compliance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. HEC conducts human rights assessments, advises on integrating human rights expertise into community relations teams and helps clients respond to human rights allegations in national and international publications.

Gender

Projects need to integrate protections for women and sexual minorities into social policies and practice. This applies to work with local communities, but is also needed in human resource documents and protocols. This is especially critical where large workforces will be moving into remote communities, where other project-induced in-migration is occurring or where staff and contractors will be drawn from diverse cultures. HEC:

Integrates relevant protections and employment measures into existing social programming streams
Includes simple gender provisions into stakeholder engagement and other social management planning and
Designs Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention programs

Artisanal Mining

Projects need to have a clear policy on artisanal mining if artisanal miners have historically operated within or near Project footprints. Projects need to document interactions with artisanal miners and the public or private security forces interfacing with miners. In different contexts, regulators, artisanal miners, actors within mining supply chains, public security forces and local communities will have different and conflicting perspectives on how artisanal mining should be treated.

HEC supports clients to meet their responsibilities and respond to stakeholder expectations without jeopardizing commercial objectives. HEC designs Alternative Livelihood Programming to provide skills training to youth transitioning out of artisanal mining. Where more direct security management planning is been required, HEC collaborates with its security partners to design appropriate security measures.

Community Health

Projects need community health baseline data and impact assessments to demonstrate that potential risks and impacts to community health are being successfully identified and appropriately mitigated. This is often in in regions where governments do not
generate community-level data.

HEC advises Projects on how to integrate health data collection and impact assessment into social practice in culturally appropriate ways. HEC partners with doctors and epidemiologists to define data collection requirements, assess baseline health conditions
and define mitigations. HEC designs community health-focussed educational campaigns with local implementing partners.

Careers & Partnerships

HEC is looking for people with strong technical expertise in social performance and human rights. This includes people with experience implementing resettlement, livelihoods, community development, conflict resolution and gender programming in the field. HEC often has openings for longer-term rotational work as well as work on shorter studies or policy development. Potential candidates can apply to be on HEC’s roster for future opportunities or apply directly to one of the job openings below. To do so, complete the Consultant Details form and we will contact you for further information within one business day.