Title: My Summer Internship: Evaluating Resettlement Projects in the Mining Sector

I write this blog from Lima, Peru, where I am about halfway through my 10-week internship at Social Capital Group (SCG). SCG is a consulting firm that specializes in the analysis and management of the social issues and risks associated with large infrastructure and extractive industry projects in Latin America. It was founded in 1999, right before the wave of social responsibility policies in the mining industry became a high-profile issue and successfully carved out space in the sector. Our clients are some of the most powerful companies in the world—though you wouldn’t know it from the cheerful office and quirky working space.

During my internship, I am focusing my time on data analysis for an endline study with a mining company in Panamá. We are measuring the social impact experienced by two indigenous Panamanian communities after they were resettled when a copper mine project began operations in their native land. Prior to the project breaking ground, the representatives from the company met with each household to negotiate a deal that would resettle the households together into a new community. The company made promises of official property titles, newly constructed homes and public infrastructure, quality education for children and adults, job training and opportunities, and access to healthcare, among other incentives. These promises were vast improvements on the communities’ standards of living, and eventually all 53 families agreed to make the move.

My team is conducting a third-party audit to examine how the resettled communities have fared three years after their initial move and to determine if company promises and international standards were met. I do this by analyzing qualitative data derived from interviews with the community, resettlement officers, and managers at the mining company. This will be collated with survey data and verifying documents from the company into a final report. The findings of this report will have an impact on the company’s ability to receive funding from international sources, such as the World Bank, which will have serious implications for its ability to expand or continue operations.

It has been fascinating to gain perspective from various actors in the resettlement process, as their conversations bring light to the complex nature of this type of work. For example, an interview with a community leader revealed discontent with the quality of the wood used in the construction of the houses, which had begun to deteriorate. In a different interview with the manager of the resettlement project, it was discovered that the wood used to build the houses was imported from Canada because local wood was prohibited for use due to conservation efforts in Panamá. The Canadian wood was unable to withstand the harsh weather of the Panamanian jungle and caused the majority of houses to fall or to be in danger of falling. Neither side realized this upon construction, and though the original agreement of ‘building new houses’ was met, it was clearly not a sustainable decision. There are many other examples of these types of failures in the project: promises met halfway.

Despite these setbacks, this experience has opened my eyes to a new, more optimistic (though cautiously so) perspective of the extractives industry. Resettlement can offer lifechanging positive effects: children in these communities are receiving education for the first time, roads were constructed giving villages access to more markets and access to healthcare, women are receiving the institutional support to build domestic violence networks, and families overall have greater security of property rights.

The experience thus far has been wonderful and checked many of the boxes that I had set for myself when looking for an internship: gaining professional experience working in Latin America, improving my Spanish, working with qualitative data analysis, and gaining insight into the extractive sector. After living in DC for the past three years, it feels good to regain my bearings living abroad. I am reminded of how humbling this career path can be—what it feels like to be a clear outsider, to not understand the public transportation, to be surrounded by strangers, to unknowingly eat a fruit that apparently the locals only eat when they need to “flush out their system”  (sometimes you learn the hard way). I hadn’t exactly imagined my summer to look like this, spent in the gray of Lima’s winter skies. But I am glad I did, as the community I have started to build here is bringing this city and this country to life for me.