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WE STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIPS WITH COMMUNITIES

CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIAL PROGRESS

Contributing to social progress is a commitment the organization has made to help meet social challenges and achieve major transformations. Moreover, sustainable environments facilitate company operations and foster a long-term, inclusive relationship with communities and other parties in the areas of influence of our operations.

We give special treatment to relationships with communities, especially ethnic groups, implementing the measures needed for guaranteeing that the organization’s human rights policy is adhered to.

We carry out transformative, responsible and ethical initiatives which have a purpose and make a positive impact on society because they reinforce the regional development capabilities of social actors in the communities and empower people. This is the approach we use for our social investment programs, since we are conscious of its relevance to business sustainability.

TARGETS

As part of our aim of contributing to sustainable community development, we work especially with young people through innovative initiatives that favor social and productive inclusion and add value to improving their quality of life, and by forging links and establishing favorable environments with a range of actors who contribute to forging good relationships between company, foundation and community.

The companies have a social management policy which establishes guidelines for carrying out actions aimed at favoring social progress in the regions. There are also a donations policy and a manual for relationships with communities. These documents set out the parameters for executing the social investment and are in line with the company’s Code of Ethics, its corporate governance precepts, and the policies relating to preventing asset laundering and the financing of terrorism.

Each year, the companies decide which communities are to be focused on as a priority in their social management and investment efforts to promote social progress in the regions, and the projects defined with the different population groups are presented to them, so that they can become agents for change in the construction of a better society and in promoting sustainable development.

In order to compensate ethnic communities for social impacts during the different stages of infrastructure construction and expansion, priority social investment projects are designed by the communities, in response to the protocol agreements made during the prior consultation stage.

Due to the voluntary nature of the social investment made by the companies and their foundations, building relationships of trust with communities that contribute to regional development are favored. Contributing to social progress means having communities that are informed, prepared and organized, so that they can co-administer their development through dialogue, participation exercises and a collective commitment to development and to respecting the public and private entities present in their territory.

The most significant impacts are associated with the construction phase of expanding existing infrastructure. These impacts are temporary and are associated with heavy vehicle traffic and the temporary blockage of roads, plus rising expectations set against a number of temporary restrictions, but all these activities have management plans and are accompanied by socio-environmental management plans and social compensation. Local fishermen are affected in waters around our affiliated company SPEC because fishing is restricted in the area corresponding to the concession held by the company for its operation.

However, the companies’ infrastructure expansion projects, as well as their operation and maintenance ones, are important occasions for creating local jobs in the form of access to temporary work for which the remuneration is higher than that stipulated by law, and this is a fundamental factor in directly promoting a better quality of life for each of the beneficiary families.

Renewable energy generation projects contribute to the energy transition in Colombia by turning to sustainable development and a clear contribution to reshaping the energy breadbasket, to sustainable development, and to reducing CO2 emissions.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH COMMUNITIES

No new prior consultation processes with ethnic communities were carried out in 2020, but progress was made on complying with compensation agreements already made; 42 such prior consultation processes are currently being complied with, after assistance had been confirmed for 40 per cent of such agreements.

We publicly share the results of environmental and social impact studies when performing our activities. All our companies provide opportunities for participation, where social interest groups can carry out their consultations and express their concerns. Our lines for attending to complaints and reports are available all the time.

We listen to communities
As far as our gas transportation companies are concerned, the increase was mainly due to problems caused by customary maintenance activities, all of which were dealt with promptly.

We structure our social management strategically, in order to meet their real needs and leave installed capacity in the communities rather than just provide simple philanthropic aid.

We have a presence in this way in every community in the area of influence.

Community dissemination programs

With a view to minimizing the risk of being affected by third parties and to living in harmony with the gas transportation infrastructure, Promigas, Transmetano, Promioriente and Transoccidente carry out a Prevention Dissemination Program with communities in their respective areas of influence. This program consists of disseminating the company’s Contingency Plan, the risks associated with being in the presence of a gas pipeline, and preventive actions relating to this.

This program also enables risk management knowledge and skills to be reinforced while increasing resilience in areas and generating long-term relationships with communities, authorities, entities and aid organizations there.

Every municipality prioritized by the company was covered. Community lockdowns were respected during the pandemic and activities were performed virtually in most of them, although in person where this was permitted, with the respective biosecurity protocols being followed at all times

WE CONTRIBUTE TO DEVELOPMENT IN THE COMMUNITIES WHERE WE ENGAGE IN OUR ACTIVITIES

Indirect economic impacts

We promote job creation in regions where we carry out significant construction or maintenance projects. All non-qualified manpower and 30 per cent of qualified manpower was hired in local communities in 2020, which translated into over 700 local non-qualified jobs and 600 qualified ones and a big boost for the local economy.

In Peru, Quavii managed to improve quality of life in 2020 for 2,400 families in seven towns and cities connected to the North Concession by offering them temporary formal employment.

Forestry offsetting projects work to reinforce production initiatives with peasant families in the sectors where work is done. This strategy is carried out in conjunction with Parques Naturales Nacionales and is integrated into the organization’s environmental and social targets.

Other positive, economic and indirect impacts relate to improving social infrastructure such as local roads, which benefits communities because it means they can trade their agricultural products.

Notable social management programs
Due to the health situation resulting from COVID-19, the companies adapted their projected social management plans for 2020. Efforts were directed toward making significant contributions to improving the institutional response capability to the emergency by donating intensive care units to hospitals and personal protection equipment to health personnel, and by providing communities with humanitarian aid, with priority given to the most vulnerable.

However, social investment projects aimed at meeting needs and addressing the social reality in the country during the pandemic were also carried out.

The Promigas Foundation worked in the field of IT in education with around 80 teachers, and this had an indirect impact on approximately 2,800 students at different academic levels in Colombia’s Caribbean region.

More than 12 scenarios were created for promoting participation and communication by various actors, and a bank of virtual tools was built up, with more than 30 virtual learning items.

Small businesses in Santa Marta were also given support, and this helped to reactivate, adapt and improve the economic and emotional.

Surtigas, through the Youngsters with Production Values inclusive regional development project of which it is the anchor company, designed a tourist route that will start in Mompox and continue to the villages of Barranco de Loba, Hatillo de Loba and San Martín de Loba with a view to making tourism a mechanism for reactivating the economy in the local 2020-2023 development plans for those communities.

Similarly, interest and new dynamics were generated in these areas for developing differential production schemes that would have a positive impact on improving productivity and efficiency in rural initiatives and projects, based on recognition of existing ones there.

One strategy at our affiliated company CEO, which is part of our Energy Illuminates Lives macro-project, is to improve community radio stations, the goal of which, since 2018, has been to consolidate communities’ capabilities.

Transmetano has continued to support four undertakings by small producers and five production units for beans, sugarloaf, chocolate and potatoes which benefit more than 50 families, a total of 180 people.

Humanitarian aid packages reached not only the beneficiary families but also community projects supported by the company, which provided the content for these packages, thereby having a dual positive impact on their economy.

The Promigas Foundation’s ‘More Entrepreneurial Youngsters’ project reached Antioquia in 2015 with the goal of achieving a social transformation and enriching the educational management of entrepreneurship programs at institutions in the area of influence; today all 14 of these institutions in the area have benefited. This has been achieved by implementing Ministry of Education Law 1014. 168 teachers and 799 students in 9th and 10th grades have taken part in this project, while 9,809 have benefited indirectly and 35 active undertakings that generate development alternatives for the regions have been supported.

Promigas has carried out social programs in the context of its construction and maintenance projects that local town halls and ethnic affairs offices (in the case of indigenous communities) have taken part in. Contributions have been made to improving community infrastructure by building parks, community rooms and deep wells, and providing land for their production activities.

TOTAL INVESTMENT

Promigas Foundation

The organization is currently in the process of consolidating a single foundation, in order to take advantage of synergies and boost voluntary social management results in Colombia and Peru, with the firm goal of focusing efforts on reactivating the country’s economy after the severe recession and the decline in social indicators as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We consider that this integration is a valuable strategy for guiding the entire organization, by aligning its programs and activities more toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals which, in turn, will help to make a bigger impact and to communicate that impact better to all interest audiences.

We have a presence in every community with our social participation and management programs.

The COVID contingency

Because of the COVID-19 emergency and the government guidelines for preventing the disease from spreading, we changed our relationship strategy, since we wanted to continue to be connected to our communities yet meetings and travel were restricted, so we continued our relationship in our areas of influence electronically (telephone, video, virtual meetings).

The social plan we had drawn up was modified, so that more resources could be directed toward dealing with the health emergency. In line with the government’s goal of strengthening the health system and expanding capacity for medical care, a contribution of 22 thousand million pesos was made.

An aggressive strategy was drawn up for delivering humanitarian aid to more than 30,000 families in the provinces where we engage in our activities, with a view to helping meet the basic needs of vulnerable people.

Specific campaigns were also carried out to support families of contractor firms and their communities by delivering food packages, in order to soften the social and food crisis resulting from the pandemic.

The company set out an agenda with projects relating to such things as food security, connectivity solutions, strengthening the health sector and production activity, in order to meet the community’s real needs in the ‘new normal’; these are in line with national directives aimed at reinforcing social resilience in the regions and contributing to the reactivation of the country’s economy.

This, in turn, enabled alliances to be forged with various public and private entities that had similar initiatives, with a view to generating synergies and facilitating operation of the strategies.