Social Responsibility - Overview

Community Participation and Consultation

Global Alumina’s corporate mission requires that ordinary Guineans realize the benefits of the commercial use of the country’s abundant natural resources.  As the only company to establish an alumina refinery in Guinea in the last 40 years—with most other companies simply extracting the country’s bauxite for processing elsewhere—Global Alumina wants to prove that companies can show strong bottom line profits while advancing a progressive corporate social responsibility policy.  We are proud that Global Alumina’s commitment to excellence in social and environmental policy has set the standard for best practices in the extractive industries in Guinea.

To better understand Guinean needs and aspirations, Global Alumina engaged in an extended consultative process at both the grassroots and national levels that guided and informed the company’s decision-making.  During the conceptual planning phase, the company convened hundreds of meetings at the village and other affected community levels to hear Guineans’ concerns and priorities firsthand.  At the refinery site, where three small villages with a total of six hundred inhabitants had to be relocated, the company retained outside neutral consultants to interface with Global Alumina on the villagers’ behalf.  In every instance, Global Alumina has been guided by the most current standards set by the World Bank and the Equator Principles.

As a result, Global Alumina has received widespread recognition from international development agencies for its use of best practices in the extractive industries in its approach to community participation in the conceptual and planning phases of the project.

Partners in Development

Global Alumina’s management quickly recognized the positive development potential of such a large project and set out to establish partnerships with leading international development agencies.  The first stage of this process was to become a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact.  Subsequently, Global Alumina formed formal strategic partnerships with the United Nations Development Program, the United States African Development Foundation, the Guinean National Council against HIV/AIDS, the United States Agency for International Development and the Canadian International Development Agency.  The company entered each partnership with the goal of maximizing the potential benefits to Guineans as the project is developed.

For more information please view:
Partnership with the United States Agency for International Development
Partnership with the United States African Development Foundation
The United Nations Global Compact