From Pariah to Exemplar: CSR & Stakeholder engagement in six best practices

From Pariah to Exemplar
Applying the six best practices
-by Wayne Dunn
www.csrtraininginstitute.com/knowledge-centre

www.csrtraininginstitute.com
The core principles of stakeholder engagement and
corporate social responsibility (CSR) are simple. But,
executing on them is far from easy.
Readers of my recent articles have asked me for detail
and examples of how the principles were applied.
This article will discuss this and look at how a complex
challenge was successfully addressed through a focus
on simple principles, strategic objectives and system-
atic execution.
It is a bit long so I’ve used a Table of Contents to you
can go directly to any part that is interesting.
To access other recent articles I’ve written click here
or open https://bitly.com/bundles/waynedunn/1
IT SHOULD SERVE BOTH.
Should Business Serve
SHAREHOLDERS?
SOCIETY?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1
Complex Stakeholder and CSR Challenge…………………………………………………………………………… 1
Confronting the Challenge……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2
Application of Best Practice Principles………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Honesty, Trust & Integrity ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
Think Value and Interests – and Do it Transparently………………………………………………… 3
Define Stakeholders Broadly And Strategically – Go Beyond Compliance………… 6
Innovative Partnership Example……………………………………………………………………………………… 6
Don’t Forget Internal Stakeholders………………………………………………………………………………… 7
From Pariah to International Exemplar………………………………………………………………………………… 7
Stakeholder Engagement and CSR. Simple, but Not Easy……………………………………………… 8
Links to Documents Cited in This Article…………………………………………………………………………… 9
Stakeholder Engagement and CSR
From Pariah to Exemplar in
Best Practices6
Simple, but Not Easy

COMPLEX STAKEHOLDER AND CSR CHALLENGE
Let me share an example from one of the most complex, and one of the most
successful, stakeholder engagement/CSR projects that I was ever involved
in. It was in South Africa with Placer Dome in the early 2000s. It is written
up as a Stanford Business School case study and you can read the full case
here.
I’ll summarize it briefly and then look at it in relation to the six best
practices that are discussed in Six Best Practices In Stakeholder
Engagement. You can also look at it in terms of a related article on Five
Common Mistakes In Stakeholder Engagement.
Placer Dome was the first major international investor in the
post-apartheid mining industry in South Africa. They were also the first
major mining company to adopt a sustainability policy.
Shortly after taking control of the South Deep mine, located just outside
of Johannesburg, South Africa, they retrenched 2,500 workers.
Retrenchments such as this were normal in the industry at that time.
100,000 workers in the South African gold mining industry were
retrenched in the 1990s. There were well established norms around how
the retrenchments were structured.
Because of its sustainability policy Placer Dome did not follow the norms.
Even though they were offering the highest ever retrenchment benefits to
the workers, relationships with the union and other key stakeholders deteri-
orated and ended up in court.
Workers and unions resisted
the retrenchment.
1
INTRODUCTION
It is really important to remember that no matter how complex the execution
gets, you must always ensure that it is serving the underlying principles and
strategic objectives. And keep the focus, the metrics and strategies as simple
and straight forward as possible.
A common problem is that people set up elaborate systems and pro-
cesses and then somehow get caught up in them.
They forget that they were set up to serve and support some simple
principles and, ultimately, to allow the company to better serve and
support stakeholders and achieve strategic objectives.
At the end of the day a big part of the success of any stakeholder
engagement or CSR program will depend on the value that the
engagement creates for the stakeholders, and for the company.
The attitude with which the engagement process is carried out is also critical.
Humility, openness, transparency, fairness, reciprocity. Practice these rigor-
ously and you’ll be surprised at the impact it will have on stakeholder relations.
Of course, it is also about focus, and working hard, and working smart. And,
some pieces of it get complex.

CONFRONTING THE CHALLENGE
Placer Dome recognized the importance of the family level economic unit
and made a commitment to work with the retrenched workers and their
families to identify and develop alternative income generation opportu-
nities. This was driven, in part, by the company’s sustainability policy.
The Care program was the first time that women would be direct benefi-
ciaries of retrenchment benefits. This was partly in response to the
burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis that was sweeping across South Africa and a
recognition that the HIV positive rate amongst the workforce was estimated
at 30%+.
This was not a simple process. The workforce was drawn from five southern
African countries. Their homes were mostly in remote communities
scattered across a 3,500 x 500km swath of rural southern Africa.
Placer Dome was a mining company. They had no direct infrastructure or
logistics capacity to reach throughout the regions where the workers came
from, nor did they have any history or experience in grassroots livelihoods
development.
There they were. New kid on the block. Publicly opposed by some critical
stakeholder groups. An inexperienced local team tackling a formidable
challenge under a glaring national spotlight.
Fortunately their leadership in South Africa (Peter Harris, Warwick Morley-
2
Placer Dome won the court case, with costs, but had severely strained
relationships with the Union and other key stakeholders, including
government.
They were named the “Worst employer in South Africa” and their efforts to
implement their retrenchment benefit program (called the Care program)
were resisted and rebuffed by many key stakeholders.
The workers were advised to resist collaboration with Placer Dome while
legal challenges to the retrenchment progressed through the courts.
The workers
lived in remote
communities
scattered
through-out
five countries in
Southern Africa:
South Africa,
Mozambique,
Lesotho,
Swaziland and
Botswana

APPLICATION OF BEST PRACTICE PRINCIPLES
1. Honesty, Trust & Integrity
There is no way this project would have even come close to succeeding
without taking this principle to heart. And they added in humility, openness
and transparency.
Corporate leadership expected no less and Philip von Wielligh made sure
these traits permeated the entire implementation team.
2. Think Value And Interests – and Do it Transparently
From day one the team was very clear that the company’s objective
was to enable 70% of the workers and their families to become
economically active, post-retrenchment.
They also acknowledged that achieving this target was important for
Placer Dome’s reputational capital and social license, in South Africa
and globally.
The interests of the workers and their families was, amongst other
things, focused on earning an income to support the family. This
aligned perfectly with the interests of the company.
3. It’s Ok To Disagree – But, Disagree Without Being
Disagreeable. And Stay Curious
The project started off with Placer Dome in litigation with one of the key
stakeholders, the National Union of Mineworkers. The union was tacitly
supported by government and other stakeholders. The company was in
active disagreement with important stakeholders.
3
Jepson, Sam Coetzer, Patrice Gilbert, Jim Fisher, Piet Kolbe, etc.)
and at corporate headquarters (Jim Cooney, Keith Ferguson, Doug
Fraser, Jay Taylor, etc.) were solidly behind the project. And, they
had incredible on the ground execution leadership.
On the ground Philip Von Wielligh set up and ran a team and
systems that enabled the project to keep moving forward. At the
same time he maintained an open and proactive outreach and
communication effort with key stakeholders at all levels (from the
communities through to international organizations).
The team evolved into a group of about 30 workers, mostly
retrenched mineworkers, scattered throughout the entire project
area.
The project succeeded despite the seemingly overwhelming
challenges. Corporate leadership and on-the-ground execution
were critical for sure. So too was a strict adherence to some simple
principles and not letting complexity distract from the ultimate
goals and objectives.
Industry retrenchments had a devastating
effect on families and children
Care project field worker in-
terviewing and registering the
spouse of a retrenched mine-
worker in a remote Lesotho
village.

4. Do Compliance but Think and Act Strategic – Check the
Boxes Yes, but That is Just the Foundation
In this case many of the ‘boxes’ were the data and process management
systems and reporting processes that were set up to track and manage
progress towards 70% goal.
A lot of attention was paid to setting up these systems and ensuring that
they were followed. It was, for sure, onerous. Especially with a far flung
team of workers scattered throughout the project area and often without
adequate communications. Ubiquitous internet and cloud-based data
management was far in the future.
But, reporting and process management never, ever
eclipsed the real objective. Everyone knew that they were
only tools to help the project to help families to become
economically active.
The ultimate objective of worker livelihoods remained
clear. Management systems and processes were used
to serve that objective and not become an objective in
themselves.
5. Share the Credit, Multiply the Resources.
Find Partners!
From day one everyone knew that to succeed they needed
partners. There were holes throughout the company’s
ability to execute on the project.
The holes could only be filled by finding the right partners and giving them
reason to engage. The team needed to focus on the values and interests of
the potential partners.
One key and early partner was the Mineworkers Development Agency
(MDA). This is important because they were the development arm of the
National Union of Mineworkers, who had challenged the retrenchment in
court and were vehemently opposed to it.
Fortunately Project Manager Philip von Wielligh was able to establish a
relationship with MDA and identify common interests (one of the reasons
MDA was set up was to help mitigate the socio-economic effects of the
decade long series of industry retrenchments).
Placer Dome executive Jim
Cooney visiting a community
development partner in Eastern
Cape Province, South Africa
4
The Union vehemently and publicly opposed the project because they
felt it was unnecessary. They did not believe the retrenchment was done
properly and that it should and would be overturned.
The project team didn’t try to deal with that disagreement. Instead they
looked for areas of common interest and avenues where individual and
institutional relationships could be nurtured and developed.
They stayed open, stayed curious and found ways to constructively engage
with the Union, government and other key stakeholders, despite the
disagreement.

6. Communicate So You are Heard and Understood
In this case communication was much more of a ‘show me, don’t tell
me’ process.
With all of the active opposition and rhetoric surrounding the launch
of the project, the company wisely did very little high level outreach
communications.
Communication strategy was focused on direct outreach to potential
partners and collaborators and on reaching and communicating with
the retrenched workers and their families.
There wasn’t a grand communication strategy to let the world know
about Placer Dome’s wonderful program and what they were doing
for the retrenched workers.
That would have backfired spectacularly. It would have provided a
public focal point for opposition and served to further polarize an
already difficult situation.
Instead the company simply put its head down and focused on the simple
internal communications and only did those external communications that
were necessary to enable it to do the job of helping the workers and their
families to become economically active.
Eventually, as the project started to have real success at helping families,
the communication focus changed. But, often it wasn’t the company
driving the communications, it was the partners who wanted to share the
success that they were part of.
Often, others who had heard of the project, inquired about it and asked
project leadership to give talks and lectures.
5
Fortuitously Union leadership was able to see beyond a serious
disagreement with the company and not prohibit the involvement
of the Mineworkers Development Agency.
Many other partnerships were developed, including with the
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA – now part
of DFATD). CIDA made their first ever major corporate social
responsibility (CSR) investment and contributed $2 million to
overall project costs.
This partnership provided CIDA with outreach and leverage and a
greater social impact than they could have achieved on their own.
For the company CIDA’s participation gave a critically important
stamp of credibility to the development program they were
undertaking.
TEBA, the Chamber of Mines employment bureau and many
other partners were brought on-board (see Stanford Case Study
for some more information on partners).
What is important is that the company recognized that it had to
share the credit and find ways for its partners to further their own
objectives.
Daughter of a retrenched mine-
worker apprenticing as an Elec-
trician. The Care project was
the first time women were direct
beneficiaries of retrenchment
benefits in the South African
mining industry.

Over time, as the project achieved success, the company became more
proactive in communications, reaching out to local, national and interna-
tional audiences. This translated into big social license and reputational
capital value for the company (read more on this at the end of this piece).
7. Define Stakeholders Broadly and Strategically
– Go Beyond Compliance
It was this broad and strategic definition of stakeholders, coupled with
application of the other principles, which enabled the project to develop
the partnerships that fueled its success.
A narrow approach to stakeholder definition would have had the company
focusing tightly on the retrenched mineworkers and not identifying other
groups and organizations that had some shared interest in the outcome.
Success would have been virtually impossible.
In addition to MDA and CIDA the company engaged with many stake-
holders ranging from local governments, to international organizations
like the World Bank, community organizations and national development
interests.
INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIP EXAMPLE
This is an example that illustrates the innovation used in defining stake-
holders and aligning interests.
In the Chokwe area of Mozambique, about 225km north of the capital
of Maputo, retrenched mineworkers identified agricultural production as
a desirable economic activity. It was something they had the skill to do,
Maputo was a ready market and the land to farm was available.
There was an infrastructure of irrigation canals that had served the area but
they had become overgrown and were largely non-functional.
The local government in Chokwe was interested in increasing local
production and economic activity and recognized the potential of the
agricultural sector.
6
Chokwe mineworker cum rice farmer
explaining agriculture expansion plans
to Willem le Roux, field team leader.

FROM PARIAH TO INTERNATIONAL EXEMPLAR
Placer Dome went from being named the worst employer in South
Africa to being held up by government and the union as an example
that the rest of the industry should follow.
Government and union spokespersons cited the program for
“making life-changing impacts on workers and families” and
“changing the social face of the South African mining industry”.
It won numerous national, regional and global awards including
becoming the first private sector project to ever win a World Bank
Global Development Innovation Award.
The Care project helped to lead the South African mining industry’s devel-
opment of HIV/AIDS programming. This became one of the world’s early
leading examples of industry HIV/AIDS programming.
The project was developed into a Stanford Business School case study (click
here). It was the subject of a huge amount of international attention, being
cited in numerous articles and books and the focus of lectures and presenta-
tions at global events.
7
The project team reached out to them and developed a collaborative plan to
rejuvenate parts of the irrigation canal system in return for access to growing
land for the retrenched workers and their families.
A productive agricultural project resulted, providing taxes, economic activity
and improved infrastructure for the Chokwe community, economic self-suf-
ficiency for the group of retrenched workers and a small success story for
the Placer Dome project team.
Don’t Forget Internal Stakeholders
The project started out with strong alignment across a range of internal stake-
holders. However, it is unlikely that alignment could have been maintained
without active work on the part of the project team and key leadership.
The project was expensive. Gold prices were at historic lows. Operational
challenges at the minesite and partnership issues with the JV partners were
big concerns.
With all this it would have been relatively easy for the project and its attention
and budget to become sidelined and even resented.
Internal stakeholders were addressed in much the same way that the group
systematically identified and reached out to external stakeholders. They
identified common interests and shared value and created alignment with
the specific interests of internal stakeholders.
The project was fortunate that it started with a core group of internal
champions and a company that recognized the ultimate shareholder value
that resulted from successful social investment.
However, it took focused, strategic and ongoing internal stakeholder
engagement efforts to keep everyone onside and supportive of a long and
difficult project.
Philip Von Wielligh, Placer Dome
project leader, with World Bank
President James Wolfensohn
and project consultant and au-
thor of this analysis Wayne Dunn
after receiving the World Bank
Development Innovation Awards
at World Bank Headquarters in
Washington, DC.

STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT AND CSR.
SIMPLE, BUT NOT EASY
The principles are simple even if their application can sometimes be
complex. What is key is to learn CSR and stakeholder engagement from
principles up. Understand the principles and the application of them gets
much simpler.
Keep the principles and the strategic objectives firmly in mind and you can
be more consistent across projects and business units.
Of course, execution is critical, but it always needs to be guided by the core
principles and strategic objectives.
I’ve found that people, and companies, that don’t develop a thorough
understanding of some simple, key principles and clearly define overall
objectives will often end up defaulting to a check the box, compliance
focused approach.
This approach may satisfy bean-counters but it generally produces only
minimal value to companies, communities and stakeholders. And is often
quite frustrating to the workers trying to execute it.
8
Retrenched worker in Xai Xai,
Mozambique protesting the va-
lidity of the retrenchment.
South Africa Minister of Mines,
Mineworkers Union and Placer
Dome hosting a multi-stakehold-
er delegation from Papua New
Guinea who were learning about
multi-stakeholder development
and HIV/AIDS programming in
South Africa.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with and learn from
Placer Dome, Philip Von Wielligh and the other key stakeholders and
participants throughout the Care project. Re-visiting the project a decade
later and seeing how relevant it is to today’s issues has been interesting
and rewarding for me. And renewed my gratitude to the Placer Dome
team for giving me the opportunity to be part of such a pathfinding
project and to CIDA for having the courage to partner with and co-fund a
mining company development project.
Wayne Dunn
President, CSR Training Institute
Professor of Practice in CSR (McGill)
wayne@csrtraininginstitute.com
9
LINKS TO DOCUMENTS CITED IN THIS ARTICLE
Stanford Case Study - http://www.slideshare.net/waynedunn/golden-op-
portunity-stanford-business-school-case-study-on-award-winning-mining-
csr-project
Stakeholder Engagement Mistakes - http://www.csrtraininginstitute.com/
the-top-five-mistakes-companies-make-in-engaging-stakeholders/
Stakeholder Engagement Best Practices - http://www.csrtraininginstitute.
com/6-best-practices-and-1-critical-principle-in-stakeholder-engagement/
Family of retrenched mineworker
in Xai Xai, Mozambique.

Stanford Social Innovation Review
518 Memorial Way, Stanford, CA 94305-5015
Ph: 650-725-5399. Fax: 650-723-0516
Case Study
Golden Opportunity
When a Canadian multinational laid off hundreds of
gold miners in South Africa, it went many extra
miles to help them get back on their feet
By Wayne Dunn
Stanford Social Innovation Review
Winter 2004
Copyright  2004 by Leland Stanford Jr. University
All Rights Reserved
DO NOT COPY
Email: info@ssireview.com, www.ssireview.com

Golden
PHOTOGRAPHBYMASTERFILE
In late 2000, I set off in a pickup truck
tohelpfindanunemployedgoldminer
living in the rugged highlands of
Lesotho, a small independent nation
surroundedbySouthAfrica.Ihadbeen
hiredtoassistacorporatesocialrespon-
sibility initiative designed to help 2,500
minerslaidoff fromSouthAfrica’sSouth
Deep gold mine, one of the world’s
largest. Under the ambitious project,
miners were to be retrained for new
jobs or taught how to start their own
smallbusinesses.Theproblemwasthat
theyhadalreadygonehometoisolated
villages and towns scattered across a
2,500-mile-long swath of rural south-
ern Africa. Now we had to find them,
and that was proving quite a challenge.
With me in the truck was Thato
Lethebele,himself alaid-off goldminer
hiredtohelplocatehiscolleagues.Since
miners often lived in places so remote
that they appear on no map, Lethebele
carried a global positioning device so
hecouldrecordthelocationof miners’
homes for the outreach workers who
would make follow-up visits.
After driving for hours along the
Roof of Africa Highway, with sheer
cliffs on one side and sheer drops on
theother,weranoutof pavedroadand
began following trails, some of which
looked like they hadn’t seen a motor
vehicle in a long time.
We began stopping everyone we
came across – men on horseback, boys
herdingcattle,womenwalkingalongthe
trail–andaskingif theyknewwherethe
miner lived. After two long hours of
bouncing and banging along remote
mountaintrails,wecametotheminer’s
village.Thetrailturnedintoanear-ver-
ticalpathforthelastquartermile,sowe
had to get out and walk.
Wefinallyarrivedatthevillagecom-
posed of about 10 huts, but the miner,
it turned out, wasn’t home.
But his wife was, and we explained
toherthatwerepresentedPlacerDome
and that we were there to inform them
about a job retraining project for Placer
CASE STUDY
b y W A Y N E D U N N
www.ssireview.com ~ FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY ~ DO NOT DISTRIBUTE ~ STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW 59
When a Canadian multinational laid off hundreds
of gold miners in South Africa, it went many extra miles
to help them get back on their feet
Goldeno p p o r t u n i t y
What happens when a multinational company suddenly changes
the social responsibility “rules” for a long-established industry?
How can a company make massive workforce layoffs compatible
with an aggressive social responsibility agenda?
What are the challenges when a firm goes far beyond its core competencies
in order to deliver on its social responsibility commitments?

CASE STUDY
Dome’s former employees.
Going Beyond Industry Practice
Placer Dome, a Canada-based global
mining firm, has more than 13,000
employees in seven countries. Its 17
mines produce more than 3.5 million
ounces of gold and 400 million pounds
of copperannually.In1999,thecompany
purchased50percentof theSouthDeep
Mine from Western Areas Limited, an
old South African mining firm, becom-
ing the first post-apartheid foreign
investorinSouthAfrica’shugegoldmin-
ing industry.
The mine required massive restruc-
turing in order to make it profitable
and to bring it in line with Placer
Dome’s safety standards. Nearly a third
of the mine’s workforce was let go.
Layoffs were a depressingly familiar
feature of the South African mining
industry in the 1990s, when more than
100,000workerslosttheirjobs.Employ-
ment cuts were so common that the
National Union of Mineworkers cre-
ated the nonprofit Mineworkers Devel-
opment Agency (MDA) to aid out-of-
work miners and their families.
Industry practice in South Africa at
the time was to give laid-off employees
two weeks of severance pay per year of
service, plus access to various job train-
ing opportunities at the mine site. But
PlacerDomefeltthisdidn’tmeasureup
to its corporate sustainability policy,
which commits the company to add
“economic, social, and environmental
value to the communities where we
operate.” Few employees take advan-
tage of training at the mine site, as it
requiresthattheystaythere,ratherthan
return to their villages. Furthermore,
training at the mine site would do little
to prepare workers for the economic
reality of their remote, impoverished
villages.
Placer Dome thus embarked on an
expensive program to train them for
new jobs or help them start their own
smallbusinesses.Giventhattheex-min-
erslivedincommunitiesscatteredacross
five countries – South Africa, Lesotho,
Mozambique,Swaziland,andBotswana
– this was a mammoth undertaking.
JayTaylor,PlacerDome’sCEOatthe
time, recognized that the world was
changing and resource-extraction busi-
nesses like his would find themselves
under increasing pressure to deliver
social value and environmental stew-
ardship along with financial returns.
And a company’s reputation, he knew,
would become increasingly dependent
on its ability to do so.
“Our commitment to community
development represents an added cost,
but is an essential investment in our
future, and should help us to achieve
greater profitability,” Taylor said.
Hisintuitionprovedcorrect.In2002,
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, South
Africa’sministerof mineralsandenergy,
established a “social scorecard” man-
dating that mining companies produce
social value for workers and the com-
munities where they come from. With
its new income-regeneration program,
Placer Dome not only had a head start
onmeetingthisrequirement,butgained
credibilitybecauseithaddonesobefore
being ordered to.
Key Management Players
In 2000, Placer Dome assigned internal
responsibility for what became known
as the Care Project to Phillip Von Wiel-
ligh, South Deep’s human resources
chief. He was supported by project
coordinator Willem le Roux, and
together they managed a group of up
to 30 full-time workers, nearly all of
them ex-miners. Von Wielligh reported
directly to the mine manager. Keith
Ferguson, vice president of sustain-
ability at Placer Dome’s head office in
Vancouver, became an internal cheer-
leader, providing financing and corpo-
rateendorsement.PlacerDome’sSouth
African management set a goal of get-
ting at least 70 percent of the laid-off
workers or their families into new jobs
or their own businesses.
PlacerDomehiredmyconsultancy,
Wayne Dunn & Associates, to provide
strategic support to the Care Project.
My firm was hired not to provide day-
to-day management, but rather to help
design the project, develop appropriate
international partnerships for it, and
support the people carrying it out. We
negotiatedthecost-sharingpartnership
withtheCanadianInternationalDevel-
opment Agency (CIDA), and managed
the relationship with the World Bank. I
visitedtheprojectthreetofourtimesper
year to help management review
progress and plan strategy.
Hunting for Good Partners
While the project team was long on
enthusiasm, it was short on experience
in managing a complex, multicountry
development project.
Teammembersrealizedtheyneeded
help locating widely scattered benefi-
ciaries. The team also needed partners
to provide the training programs. So
60 STANFORD SOCIAL INNOVATION REVIEW ~ FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY ~ DO NOT DISTRIBUTE ~ www.ssireview.com
“When the mine laid off 2,500 workers, we
expected it would be similar to other
retrenchments, but the Care Project has changed
the South African mining industry.”
{ }

theyapproachedtwoorganizationswith
common interests and the infrastruc-
ture to cover the vast region where the
minerslived.TheEmploymentBureau
of Africa(TEBA),arecruitingagencyfor
theminingindustrywithofficesthrough-
out southern Africa, and the MDA,
which had several training and devel-
opmentfacilitiesintheregion,agreedto
help the Care Project.
The Care Project contracted with
TEBA and MDA for the use of their
facilities, daily supervision of the out-
reachworkerswhoworkedfromTEBA’s
offices, and the provision of specific
training programs. If TEBA or MDA
could not provide the training, they
could source it to other local providers.
Inadditiontopayingthemfortheirser-
vices, the Care Project paid to upgrade
some TEBA and MDA training centers
andofficefacilities.Theeffortsof TEBA
andMDAweredirectedbyVonWielligh,
who also maintained quality control.
The project team developed what it
thought was a straightforward plan.
About 25 laid-off miners would be
armed with global positioning devices
and dispatched to scour the bush coun-
tryfortheirex-colleagues’homes.Once
located, former workers would be reg-
isteredfortheCareProjectandtheGPS
coordinates of their homes recorded.
Then on subsequent visits, the team
representativeswouldhelptheworkers
and their families decide whether they
wanted to be trained for new jobs or
tutored in setting up their own busi-
nesses. Workers could nominate wives
or other family members to receive the
training – the first time women ever
had direct access to severance benefits.
The team felt that lengthy studies
andconsultationswouldonlydelaythe
process of aiding the miners and their
families.Tosavetime,theinitialbudget
fortheprojectwassetat$2.5millionso
that the CEO of Placer Dome’s South
Africa division could approve it with-
out going to the company’s full board.
Theplansoundedsimple,butputting
it into effect was anything but.
Distrust and Frustration
With no experience running such a
complex endeavor, Placer Dome made
some early mistakes. For one thing, it
failed to get the National Union of
Mineworkers on its side. Enraged at
the sweeping layoffs, the union had
challenged them in court but lost. The
union had little reason to trust Placer
Dome, and much credibility to lose if
it backed the Care Project and it failed.
When the project started, the union
was still telling workers the layoffs
would be overturned and they would
get their jobs back. On several occa-
sions, I watched as project team mem-
bers endured long, angry lectures from
former miners who believed Placer
Dome was unfairly taking their jobs.
The project’s biggest initial hurdle
was finding ex-workers in some of the
most inaccessible places on the planet.
To locate and register one family,
for example, took us more than five
frustrating, harrowing hours. And we
planned to do this 2,500 times.
Thenthereweretheex-minersthem-
selves. Many were in denial about their
job status and fully expected to go back
to work; some had not even told their
families about the layoffs. Moreover,
many workers were functionally illiter-
ate or ill with AIDS, making employ-
ment training for them problematic.
Adapting the Strategy to Reality
The original plan was for the 25 Care
Project outreach workers to be super-
visedbyoneperson.Butthiswasimpos-
sible, so Von Wielligh appointed five
regionalmanagers,oneineachcountry.
VonWielligh,leRoux,andtheregional
managersmetface-to-faceeverymonth
to report progress, set targets, share
lessons learned, and develop overall
strategy.Regionalmanagersinturnheld
monthly meetings with fieldworkers
who operated out of TEBA offices in
their jurisdiction.
Wesolvedthelogisticalnightmareof
transporting outreach workers by sup-
plying fieldworkers with motorcycles.
They also were provided with cell
phones,improvingtheirabilitytocom-
municate with project managers.
Astheteamgraduallylocatedtheex-
miners and informed them about the
twodifferentprograms–thejobretrain-
The Bottom Line
BENEFITS TO PLACER DOME
Meet new government social
standards before they’re imposed.
Credit for “changing the social
face of South African mining.”
Improved relations with
miners’ union.
Won prestigious World Bank
Development Innovation Award.
BENEFITS TO MINERS
Job training led to new employment.
Entrepreneurial skills training
allows many to open their
own small businesses.
AIDS home-based care programs
help infected miners and
their families.
COSTS TO PLACER DOME
$3.6 million in cash.
Management time.

ing program and the small-business
trainingprogram–thattheycouldenroll
in, we realized that the ex-miners were
struggling to make an informed choice
betweenthetwo.Manyof themweren’t
aware of the range of options for mak-
ingaliving.Theycouldbecomechicken
farmers, bricklayers, welders, bakers,
vegetablefarmers,orfurnituremakers.
They also could open convenience
stores,garages,orsolarpanelinstallation
shops.
To showcase these alternatives and
help them choose a career path, Care
ProjectmanagementalongwithTEBA
andMDAcameupwiththeideaof cre-
ating a career fair. Named Open Days,
theseeventsbecameinvaluableinopen-
ing the eyes of ex-miners to an array of
alternative careers opportunities. One
careerfairwasheldineachprovince,and
the project arranged and paid for trans-
portation to bring workers and their
spouses in from the villages. Trainers
andsupplierssetupinformationbooths,
and the fairs quickly took on the feel of
acelebrationasoldco-workersreunited.
Despite the successful awareness
raising of the career fair, many ex-min-
ers were still hesitant about choosing
between the job training or the small-
business training. While excited about
the possibility of striking out on their
ownwithasmallbusiness,mostex-min-
erslackedallbutthemostrudimentary
financial skills required to run it. I sug-
gestedcreatingaprogramtoteachthem
and their spouses basic financial skills.
MDAwashiredandpaidtodevelopand
provide a financial life skills course.
Classes included how to operate a cal-
culator, assess microenterprise oppor-
tunities, and weigh the advantages and
disadvantages of self-employment. At
Von Wielligh’s insistence, trainers and
counselorswereprofessionallycertified
and, where possible, hired locally.
These one-week financial life skills
sessions, in conjunction with Open
Days and group counseling sessions,
helped workers and their families make
twocriticalchoices:whowouldtakethe
training, the miner or another family
member, and whether they wanted to
train for new jobs or run their own
businesses.
The Network of Partners Gets
to Work
Those who chose new jobs were
trained, and the project team used its
extensive network of business con-
tacts to help find openings for them.
The project paid to give some miners
on-the-job training with new employ-
ers, saving the employer money and
increasing the employability of Care
Project trainees.
Those who wanted to become
entrepreneurs entered a program that
familiarized them with microbusiness
operations and helped them explore
the market for their proposed business.
TEBA, MDA, or their local subcon-
tractors provided the training.
With the vast geographic spread of
the project, the support had to be cus-
tomized based on local requirements
and capacity. If, for example, a miner
wantedtobecomeachickenfarmer,the
project paid for him to receive generic
small-business training along with spe-
cialized courses on the technical aspects
of raising poultry. Whenever possible,
trainees were introduced to local
experts who could help them develop
their businesses over time. The project
connected a group of miners-turned-
chicken farmers in Mozambique, for
instance, with local suppliers of hatch-
lings and chicken feed.
AftertheCareProjectwaslaunched,
I helped bring in a governmental part-
ner, CIDA, which realized that working
with Placer Dome could further its
own poverty-alleviation agenda and
influence the direction of the Care Pro-
jectaswell.CIDAprovided$1.4million,
and also lent development expertise
and credibility to the project.
One condition of CIDA’s partici-
pation was that South Deep develop an
HIV/AIDS program. Placer Dome, in
order to fulfill the requirements of
CIDA funding, worked closely with
TEBA to champion a new initiative to
CASE STUDY
Care Project fieldworker Thato Lethebele takes the GPS reading for the home of former
mine worker Ditonako Thakali in Mokhotlong, a village in the highlands of Lesotho. TEBA
regional manager Thabiso Thaaso and Thakali’s wife observe the process. The village was
reached after an arduous journey along the Roof of Africa Highway and through a maze
of trails stretching back into the remote mountain ranges.
PHOTOGRAPHCOURTESYOFWAYNEDUNN

provide training and support to family
members caring for dying workers.
The AIDS home-based care program
was designed and led by TEBA. Von
Wielligh participated in the concept
development and helped the project
to gain broad industry acceptance
through informal advocacy among his
peers in other companies. Placer Dome
paid for my consultancy’s efforts to
gain more legitimacy and funding for
the initiative by entering it in the World
Bank Development Marketplace com-
petition. Today, all South African gold
mining companies participate in the
program and fully cover its costs, about
$500,000 per year.
Success Stories
Slowly, the Care Project team’s perse-
verance began to pay off. Skepticism
dissipated as some laid-off workers
began getting new jobs, and others
started setting up small businesses.
InLesotho,ayoungwomanopened
an electronics repair shop, and a school
to teach others her skills. Several ex-
minersinMozambiquedecidedtogrow
vegetables for the market in Maputo,
the capital.
After taking the financial skills
course,anotherworkerwentbacktohis
village, an hour away from the nearest
retail outlet, and saw an opportunity.
He opened a small general store in his
house, making a living for himself and
sparinglocalwomenandchildrenalong
walktopurchasesupplies.Hehassince
parlayedhisshopintoseveralotherlocal
businesses, and serves as an entrepre-
neurial role model for others.
Not everyone was successful; some
tried hard and didn’t make it. But
many did succeed, making a differ-
ence for their families and setting an
Key Players and Roles
Laid-off mine worker and family • Participated in program or selected family member to participate in training
Placer Dome • Conceived and launched the project
South Deep Mine • Provided $3.6 million in cash financing
• Provided management/corporate support
• Project management
Care Project team • Day-to-day management
• Responsibility for quality control
• Managed outreach/fieldworkers
• Contracted with and paid for TEBA and MDA’s participation
• Managed all southern Africa relationships
The Employment Bureau of Africa • Member of project steering committee
(TEBA) • Assisted with organizing Open Days
• Office space for fieldworkers
• Provided training facilities
• Identified/contracted training providers
• Developed and managed AIDS home-based care program
Mineworkers Development • Member of project steering committee
Agency (MDA) • Assisted with organizing Open Days
• Provided training facilities
• Identified/contracted training providers
Canadian International • Provided $1.4 million in project financing
Development Agency (CIDA) • Provided development expertise
• Lent credibility to the project
World Bank • Awarded Development Innovation Award and $100,000 award to Placer
Dome/TEBA home-based care project
• Gave global profile to the project
Wayne Dunn & Associates (WDA) • Assisted with project design
• Negotiated partnership with CIDA
• Managed World Bank competition entry
• Provided ongoing strategic consulting, and facilitated stakeholder communications

example for their neighbors.
Bottom Line
The Care Project ended in December
2003 after virtually all the laid-off min-
ers had been contacted. Outreach
workers had made 3,251 home visits
and registered 2,232 participants.
Although this was less than the 70 per-
cent participation rate we had initially
sought, we considered the project suc-
cessful. Of those who registered, 56
percent were still making at least $100
per month in October 2003 – well
above the subsistence-level wages com-
mon in the rural areas where they
lived. We project that the average ben-
eficiary will earn about $1,000 per
year, comparing favorably to the per
worker program cost of $1,667. Placer
Dome had contributed $3.6 million in
cash, as well as management time and
corporate resources.
The AIDS home-based care project
has supported nearly 2,200 families and
trained over 400 village care supporters
in its first two years. In 2002, the home-
based care project won the World
Bank’s Development Innovation Award
– the first time a private-sector social
responsibility project had done so. The
Care Project won the 2004 Nexen
Award for Excellence in Corporate
Social and Ethical Responsibility, given
annually to the top Canadian corporate
social and ethical project.
The results of the Care Project have
been a welcome surprise for the South
African government. “When [the mine]
laid off 2,500 workers in 1999, we
expected it would be similar to other
retrenchments, where the workers and
their families received little support
other than some on-mine training for
the worker,” said Kgosietsile Mogaki,
socialplandirectorfortheSouthAfrican
Ministry of Minerals and Energy.
“However, we have witnessed the Care
Project making life-changing impacts,
helping workers and their families to
develop alternative incomes. Today [the
governmentsees]theCareProjectasan
examplethatweencourageothermines
to follow. The Care Project has changed
the social face of the South African
mining industry.”
For Placer Dome, the Care Project
produced a strong relationship with
unions and the South African govern-
ment, plus a global reputation as a
leader in corporate social responsibility.
For me, the project demonstrated how
the private sector can work proactively
with development partners such as
CIDA to accomplish what neither of
them could do individually.
Development agencies and private
firms have common interests. Devel-
opment organizations have a mandate
to alleviate poverty and inequality in
the developing world. International
business, especially in industries such
as mining, is under increasing pres-
sure to demonstrate that it can create
social value along with shareholder
value. In much of the world, social
value is synonymous with easing
poverty and increasing equality.
CIDA and other development
agencies have extensive experience
designing and implementing devel-
opment projects, but their funding is
limited and, with the increase in pri-
vate investment in recent years, their
relative influence in developing
economies is shrinking. Multinational
businesses like Placer Dome have well-
developed logistics and project exe-
cution skills; often they have infra-
structure and managers in isolated
areas (where mines are located) as
well. As the Care Project demon-
strates, there are significant synergies
that can be achieved when these two
sectors collaborate effectively.
WAYNE DUNN holds an M.Sc. in management from the Stanford Graduate School of
Business and is the founding partner of Wayne Dunn & Associates Ltd., a Canadian con-
sulting firm that helps private and public sector clients worldwide address sustainability
and social development issues. Dunn has worked on more than 40 social licensing projects
in 26 countries on six continents. He can be reached at wayne@waynedunn.com.
Care Project coordinator Willem le Roux observes the collection of registration
information from the wife of a former mine worker.
PHOTOGRAPHCOURTESYOFWAYNEDUNN

SHAREHOLDERS?
SOCIETY?
IT SHOULD SERVE BOTH.
Wayne Dunn is President & Founder of the CSR Training Institute
and Professor of Practice in CSR at McGill. He’s a Stanford Sloan
Fellow with a M.Sc. in Management from Stanford Business
School.
He is a veteran of 20+ years of award winning global CSR and
sustainability work spanning the globe and covering many indus-
tries and sectors including extensive work with Indigenous Peoples in Canada
and globally. His work has won major international awards and has been used
extensively as ‘best-practice’ by industry and academia.
He’s also worked oil rigs, prospecting, diamond drilling, logging,
commercial fishing, heavy equipment operator, truck driver and
underwater logging, done a couple of start-ups and too many other
things to mention.
Wayne’s career includes big successes, and spectacular failures. He
hopes he’s learned equally from both.
WAYNE DUNN, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER
Helping business to serve society and
shareholders, SIMULTANEOUSLY.

From Pariah to Exemplar: CSR & Stakeholder engagement in six best practices

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From Pariah to Exemplar: CSR & Stakeholder engagement in six best practices