Does your company have projects registered under UN Clean Development Mechanism?
YES
Does your company have a publicly available commitment to respect human rights? If so, please provide a link.
See our statement on human rights in the document ‘Environmental and Social Sustainability Policies’ that can be downloaded at the following link: http://ltwp.co.ke/feedback-mechanism/
Does your company identify its salient human rights issues and does it have a due diligence process to manage them? If so, please list the issues and describe the due diligence process (key steps include: impact assessment, integrating & acting on findings, tracking responses & communicating how impacts are addressed).
In 2009 the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) project underwent a rigorous audit process and completed a National Environmental Impact Assessment, as well as an International Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), in compliance with the IFC Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability in place at the time.
The construction process commenced towards the end of 2014 and operations are expected to start in quarter four 2017.
LTWP’s EPC Contractor undertakes monthly auditing of its subcontractors on labour related aspects that could become human rights issues, such as payroll, accommodation, working standards and health and safety. In addition, a quarterly review of the Environmental and Social Management Systems is conducted by a third party expert. Following the reviews, findings and corrective actions are identified by the third party, which are documented and tracked on a bi weekly basis.
What criteria does your company use to identify communities that may be affected by renewable energy projects it is involved in?
Prior to the Project inception, LTWP undertook thorough feasibility studies that entailed, among other things, extensive consultation with the local communities. A project area of impact was identified and all communities within the area were considered to be affected.
Community engagement is described in detail in the project-specific Stakeholder Engagement Plan (accessible here: http://ltwp.co.ke/public_consultation/).
How does your company consult with affected communities (on impact assessments, resettlement, benefit sharing plans, etc.)? Please describe what form consultations take and when they are carried out in a project’s cycle.
Stakeholder engagement has been an ongoing process over the past ten years. Consultations vary from one-to-one interviews to barazas (group meetings) that involve whole communities. LTWP
continues to involve the local State administration, community leaders and the general public in the area covered by the land lease in the consultation process.
During the construction phase, there is ongoing consultation facilitated by the Community Liaison Officers (CLO) team. This will continue throughout the project lifecycle. The CLOs, who are from the project area and speak the local languages, are also involved in implementing the project grievance mechanism and in disclosing project information.
Does your company ensure its consultations include the perspectives and respect the rights of all affected community members (including those who may be marginalised for reasons of gender, social status, age, religion, wealth or income or other considerations)? How is this ensured?
Community leaders in the wider Loiyangalani Division (representatives of the Turkana, Samburu, Rendille and El Molo communities); gender and youth-based groups; and non-governmental organisations have been consulted throughout the entire Project feasibility and inception process and continue to be consulted, primarily through the CLO Team.
LTWP has seen a positive change towards the inclusion of women in consultations, for example initially women did not attend consultations at some villages and nowadays women not only attend, but feel comfortable to raise their opinions freely.
Under what circumstances does your company commit to seeking an affected community’s free, prior & informed consent to a project? Please provide examples of projects where free, prior & informed consent was sought (if applicable).
LTWP is committed to ensure that the development and operation of the Lake Turkana wind farm has minimal impact on the communities within the Project’s footprint, and especially on those communities that may be vulnerable, marginalised or indigenous. As such, in line with its Indigenous People Policy Framework (IPPF), LTWP undertakes ongoing monitoring of potential impacts on Indigenous People (IP).
Irrespective of the different national and international definitions that categorise communities as being indigenous or not, LTWP has and will continue to engage in a process of free, prior and informed consultation with all the directly and indirectly affected communities within the wider Project area throughout the Project’s lifecycle so as to inform them about the Project, identify their views, and obtain their broad community support to the Project. LTWP will continue to ensure that consultations are conducted in good faith; are culturally appropriate; gender sensitive; voluntary, free of interference and non-manipulative.
The Project CLOs, who are all from the wider Project areaand who speak the local languages, are well informed about the movements of people in the wider Project area. The CLOs continue to monitor movements of people and continue to have ongoing discussions with the affected communities, as well as report back information related to perceived negative impacts of the Project on any of the affected communities.
As of 4 October 2016, based on LTWP’s ongoing monitoring, LTWP has found that the Project has had no negative impacts on IP. For example, there have been no changes to land use or access to land, no loss of resources, no loss of livelihoods and no loss of sites of cultural importance or heritage. Instead, positively, the Project has provided employment to over 2,000 local community members and has provided wider socio-economic benefits through its corporate social responsibility foundation, i.e. Winds of Change (WoC), such as: construction and equipping of classrooms; construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of boreholes; construction of livestock troughs; construction of water pipelines; and, construction and rehabilitation of dispensaries.
What is your company’s process for obtaining and evaluating free, prior & informed consent?
As indicated above, the company ensured that broad community support was obtained from the ten-year stakeholder engagement process which involved various levels of consultations with groups from all of the communities from Laisamis to Loiyangalani. Local dialects were used in the meetings to ensure the affected communities got the opportunity to air their concerns, which were taken into account while developing the impacts mitigation measures. Sarima village (as the only village on the Project site) was consulted extensively and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Project.
Independent social experts from the various lenders have been allowed to freely interact with the communities to ascertain that consent was provided by the local communities.
Has your company faced any challenges in its process to seek free, prior & informed consent for renewable energy projects? If so, please describe what steps your company has taken to overcome these challenges.
Broad community support has been obtained through years of consultation with local communities.
What steps does your company take to ensure that its own personnel, private security companies it contracts with, and/or government forces providing security to its projects, respect the rights of workers and community members, including those who may oppose its projects?
All contractors on site have committed to adhere to Lake Turkana Wind Power’s environmental and social standards, including in relation to human rights and community engagement.
LTWP’s main contractors, under supervision of LTWP, undertake monthly auditing of their subcontractors on labour related aspects that could become human rights issues, such as payroll, accommodation, working conditions and health and safety.
LTWP itself is itself audited on a quarterly basis by an external party with duty of care to the Project’s Lenders.
Does your company have a grievance mechanism in place at each project site for affected communities and workers to raise concerns about local impacts, including human rights abuses? If so, were affected communities involved in the design of the grievance mechanism, including its set-up and the types of remedies it provides?
LTWP operates a community grievance mechanism and a separate worker grievance mechanism. The community grievance mechanism is implemented by the CLO Team.
Affected community members were involved in the design of the community grievance mechanism, including its set-up. The CLOs are from the local community and have been with the project for several years; they play a key role in addressing community grievances.
Worker grievances are primarily managed directly by the construction contractors but can also be escalated directly to LTWP level, in which case CLOs will intervene in order to assist in the resolution of the grievances.
Please see the link to the LTWP grievance mechanism: http://ltwp.co.ke/feedback-mechanism/
Case study related to this company *DISCLAIMER: This has been collected by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and is not part of the company's answer to the questionnaire
Kenya: Lake Turkana Wind Power Project
Lake Turkana Wind Power is poised to build the largest wind farm in Africa, with a planned capacity of 310 MW covering 162 km². The project has been accused of inadequate consultations and of abusing indigenous peoples’ rights, land rights, and free, prior and informed consent. Lake Turkana Wind Power states that they have respected the rights of all affected communities in the area.
The most recent publications by the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs and Danwatch detail allegations of inadequate consultation with indigenous communities and increased alcoholism, prostitution, and violence due to an influx of migrants into the area, and call on the company to respect local pastoralists’ right to free, prior & informed consent (FPIC). At the time of the publications, Lake Turkana Wind Power recognised this right but held that the pastoralist groups affected by the project are not indigenous and therefore FPIC was not necessary. In their most recent response, Lake Turkana Wind Power has stated that they would engage with affected communities regardless of whether they are indigenous or not.
Further information: Danwatch (Lake Turkana & Vestas' response included)
Lake Turkana's response (Mar 2016)