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Social Engagement

As set out in the Project’s Social Performance Strategy, the core social values that will guide the EACOP Project are Respect, Responsibility and Exemplary Conduct. The EACOP Project is committed to meaningful engagement with all of its stakeholders based on the principles of participation, respect for human rights, non-discrimination, empowerment, transparency and accountability.  The following principles apply to the Project and its Contractors ensuring that stakeholder engagement is:

Stakeholder engagement allows the Project to:

Meaningful engagement is an important part of the Project’s overall process for identifying and addressing potential human rights impacts and supports the Project’s respect for the rights to information and consultation of affected stakeholders.

Grievance Management

The management of grievances is a central part of the stakeholder engagement process.  The Project has developed a Grievance Management Procedure which is a step-by-step approach for receiving, acknowledging, and registering, reviewing, investigating and resolving complaints and grievances from all Project affected stakeholders.   This Project level Grievance Management Procedure reflect the Project’s commitment to ensuring that communities and individuals adversely affected by the Project are able to raise a grievance so that it can be remediated.

As part of their regular engagement with stakeholders, EACOP stakeholder engagement team ensure that the Grievance Procedure is well known and understood by local communities who need clear information, in a summarized form, adapted to the local context and language, and combined with practical explanations about the following points:

The Grievance Procedure

The land acquisition process has involved extensive engagement with affected persons  and their households and Non-Governmental Organizations. Sensitization meetings were undertaken for regional, district and village stakeholders to create awareness of the land acquisition process.

Working with Vulnerable Ethnic Groups self-identifying as Indigenous Peoples

The EACOP pipeline in Tanzania crosses traditional territories of four Vulnerable Ethnic Groups self-identifying as Indigenous Peoples which were identified with the support of an internationally recognized Tanzanian Indigenous Peoples specialist, Dr. Elifuraha Laltaika. The four groups are: the Akie, Taturu, Barabaig, and Maasai.

Engagement with these groups started at the community level in 2018 and with the national traditional leadership of the groups since 2019. Engagement is supported by Dr. Laltaika  and three NGOs that already work with these communities.  The Project hosts quarterly workshops with the traditional leaders who meet, both within their individual groups and together with the Project team, to advance dialogue about the Project, its impacts, and their participation in benefits.

In October 2021, the EACOP Framework for Vulnerable Ethnic Groups self-identifying as Indigenous Peoples was signed by traditional leaders, an EACOP representative, NGO representatives and Dr. Laltaika. Matters addressed in the Framework Agreement include:

The Project signed a Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) Agreement on 6th July 2022 with the Akie Community of Napilikunya in Manyara region in respect of their cultural and spiritual values. The signing of the FPIC Agreement took place after extensive engagement with the community. This is the first FPIC agreement to be signed in Tanzania.

Managing Impacts on Cultural Heritage

With the support of a senior archaeologist based at the University of Dar es Salaam,  EACOP has conducted surface and subsurface archaeological surveys in Tanzania along the length of the pipeline corridor and at each camp or installation site. This has led to the identification of very rich cultural heritage including nine sites of very high importance (VHI)
  • Idala (Nzega) is a VHI Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) site;
  • Kalikala (Kiteto) is a VHI Early Iron Age (EIA) pottery and iron production site;
  • Kwamagimbi (Handeni) Later Iron Age (LIA) pottery site;
  • Main Camp site 8 in Bukombe is a VHI Early Iron Age (EIA) pottery site (with beads);
  • Main Camp site 9 in Nzega is a VHI Middle Stone Age (MSA) site;
  • The coating plant site in Nzega is a VHI Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) site;
  • Main Camp site 11 in Singida is a VHI Middle Stone Age (MSA) site;
  • Main Camp site 12 in Kondoa is a VHI Early Iron Age (EIA) iron production site (it is a surface site); and,
  • Main Camp site 16 in Muheza is a VHI Later Iron Age (LIA) pottery site.
“Based on my experience of about 15 years as an archaeologist, I can say that the EACOP’s Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment (CHIA) is the best effective example Africa wide and in Tanzania particularly. These studies have been intensive, extensive, and unique through which we have discovered several archaeological and non-archaeological cultural heritage sites that would have been destroyed by construction activities’ commented Dr. Edwinus Chrisantus Lyaya. Commenting on EACOP’s surveys, Dr. Emmanuel Bwasiri, Assistant Director, Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism stressed that “EACOP has conducted the best surveys compared to other big Projects due to the level of professionalism involved and this includes the use of experts, the methodology for the assessment in the field, analysis after obtaining the artifacts and  reporting of findings. By doing so, the Project is helping the country in identifying new archaeological sites of great importance.”
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