COMPLEX PROBLEMS FACING MINING COMMUNITIES CAN’T ALWAYS BE “UBERISED”

While participating in the Mining Indaba earlier in early Feburary as part of a panel on “The human side of technology: is humanity or technology the problem?”, the question was posed about how mines and innovators should include and support communities in the technology transition.

Dipalesa Mpye, Head of Social Impact at Tshikululu Social Investments

In terms of lessons around the adoption of new technology and its application within a host community setting, it is important to note that the communities in question continue to face complex, nuanced and interconnected. As we seek innovative, disruptive solutions, we need to accept that not all problems facing communities can be solved through models like Uber.

It is one thing to draw inspiration from them, but to “Uberise” everything would be to oversimply the complex dynamics within the communities. For example, using a solution that works for overall crime response and applying this to tackling gender-based violence in communities without understanding the nature of GBV and the ecosystem of actors that exist to tackle it is a recipe for failure and harm.

Best practice principles that apply to developing and deploying new technologies within a commercial context should also be applied when working with communities.

When making decisions around tech it is vital to have a robust understanding of the user journey – making sure you have the right skillset and end-user representation. The same applies in a community context. For example, if one is a funder, as part of due diligence processes it is important to ask whether young people have participated in the User Acceptance Testing process, if this is a solution aimed at young people.

But advances in technology are set to positively influence the work of social impact players like ourselves, especially in terms of data collection, verification and understanding impact.

As we navigate a world where ESG/ sustainability governance, standards, reporting and assurance are becoming ever more complex, technology is an important lever. Huge investments have been made by the mining sector into communities, but it is often difficult to report tangibly on impact. The sector is under increasing pressure to report beyond outputs. Technology has a role to play in data collection, data verification at scale.

But ethics always need to underpin any tech development process, trust needs to be gained from communities, and a long-term approach has to be taken.

Ultimately, people’s relationship with technology in mining can be improved if there is strong leadership that is courageous enough to embrace failure, a necessary part of the innovation process; patient enough to pilot and test solutions; and welcoming of divergent feedback.

Positive disruption is not an event, but a journey.