This is about acting in a way which respects people, and delivers business growth in a manner that does not have an adverse impact on individuals and communities.
Ma'aden operates in a way which promotes social progress and inclusion. Over the past year, we have seen staff at all sites stepping forward to help local communities deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
This matters to our business. We are committed to being a welcomed neighbour, and to make sure that the places and communities where we operate are the first to benefit from the value that our activity generates.
One of the key mechanisms for doing this is through our engagement with local communities. Having strong, open and honest conversations with local communities is a key element of the Ma'aden model.
Our community development and engagement activities are designed to empower locals through local hiring, local buying, local skill development and to drive strategic social investment by addressing impact and understanding local pressing needs. In 2020 we also implemented new systems to support increased local procurement in areas where Ma’aden operates, helping to secure sustained long-term benefits to host communities.
Despite the unique challenges posed by COVID-19, we have continued to develop, embed and expand our community engagement approach in 2020, and to integrate community management systems into our core business – achieving substantial improvements at all mine sites. We have had a specific focus this year on putting policies in place to ensure that our engagement activities reflect the diversity of the communities within which we work – broadening them to proactively engage more women, young people and older people.
Ma'aden developed a Community Management System to track our progress on achieving our goals around community activities, and this has shown steady year on year improvements since 2012 - this year reaching our 2020 target in spite of the disruption caused by COVID-19.
