Supporting local economic growth in Ghana: Newmont

Published

24 August, 2011

Type

Case Study

Newmont management response

  • Sharpen intervention areas where results are below expectation – the results showed that most of the local MSMEs were not procuring locally when delivering contracts to Newmont Ghana Gold. As this action decreases the trickle-down effect of the development of local suppliers, the Local Suppliers & Contractors Development Unit and the Ahafo Linkages Program have intensified sensitization of local vendors with regards to doing local procurement as much as possible;
  • Engage major stakeholders on how to sustain outcomes and initial impacts;
  • Explore and strengthen complementarities with other social investments sponsored by Newmont Ghana Gold;
  • Include the Local Economic Development component in future studies to assess the impacts of the Ahafo Linkages Program.

Lessons learned

  • Assisting non-mining related sectors is a challenge;
  • Dynamics of local business community: Although 87% of the local business association members surveyed had seen positive changes in the business community, one-quarter of the respondents were not fully satisfied with the services of the association; setting clear expectations of engagement of local business participants is important;
  • Stakeholder interviews must be carefully designed to ensure objective and focused feedback; unlike other stakeholder consultations, avoid using open-ended questions.

Looking ahead

Mentoring of MSMEs in local supplier development and local economic development continues. As of April 2009, 101 local MSMEs had shown improvements in formal business practices (48 for local supplier development and 53 for local economic development).

Newmont plans to apply the WBCSD Measuring Impact Framework to conduct an overall assessment of the impacts of its operations on the local and national economy as part of a long-term evaluation plan.

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