Direct Investment

For many millions in the developing world, land is central to livelihoods, food security, even identity — the natural result of a direct dependence on agriculture and natural resources. It is not surprising, then, that a recent wave of large-scale land acquisitions in poorer countries has sparked a major debate.

This project aims to deliver access to modern energy services in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria via small-scale community-based initiatives.

Facilitating company-led grievance and redress mechanisms to address the environmental and social concerns of communities and other stakeholders affected by business activities.

Empowering citizens to hold public and private sector actors to account in decisions concerning direct investment in the extractive industries ). Through our network of partners in oil-producing and mining regions of the world, we are promoting exchange of knowledge and skills to stimulate dialogue between stakeholders in extractive industries projects.
 

Petroleum giant BP is the single largest foreign investor in Azerbaijan. IIED has been working in an innovative sustainable development cooperation agreement with BP's communications and external affairs team in Azerbaijan.

This work focuses on deals between foreign investors and governments. The terms of these deals have major implications for whether investment projects bring real benefits for the people and environments where they take place, or whether they undermine sustainable development.

This area of work explores the local sustainable development implications of relations between extractive industries, communities and the state. We have a major focus on Arctic communities particularly in Russia. We also seek to facilitate communication between communities in different parts of the world who share similar experiences.

In this project we are investigating the relationships between multinational oil and gas companies and their local contractors. We focus on the environmental and social performance of local contractors and the ways in which multinational oil and gas companies ensure that sustainable development principles are adhered to along the supply chain. Our analysis  focuses on two countries of the Former Soviet Union - Russia and Kazakhstan.
 

IIED collaborated with Riinvest Institute, Pristina, in a World Bank-funded project to develop a community development framework and community development guidelines. For IIED, the project built on our substantial experience working to analyse the public sector dimensions of efforts to encourage ‘corporate social responsibility'. It also raised the question ‘how can public sector actors catalyse and incentivise business good practice for local community development'?