Community Development Toolkit

Community development is the process of increasing the strength and effectiveness of communities, improving peoples' quality of life, and enabling people to participate in decision making to achieve greater long-term control over their lives. Sustainable community development programs are those that contribute to the long-term strengthening of community viability. Mining and mineral processing activities can play a central role in sustainable development by acting as a catalyst for positive economic and social change in areas that may otherwise have limited opportunities for economic and social development.

The Pioneering New Approaches in Support of Sustainable Development in the Extractive Sector project was jointly coordinated and managed by the World Bank Group's Oil, Gas and Mining Policy Division and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), and was supported financially by the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP), ICMM, and the World Bank. The aim of the project was to develop new approaches and tools to support government, industry, and community efforts to realize more sustainable community development around mining and mineral processing operations.