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SST 707 History of Social Standards in Nigeria

The document discusses the challenges and limitations in Social Impact Assessments (SIAs), highlighting issues such as the prioritization of societal over personal aspects, insufficient analysis of gathered information, and inadequate coverage of indirect social impacts. It also notes the limited integration of different sections within SIAs and the lack of staff familiarity with specific social contexts. To address these challenges, the document suggests a transition towards more rigorous standards for the social component of SIAs, emphasizing improved data gathering and analysis.

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Terna Hon
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53 views7 pages

SST 707 History of Social Standards in Nigeria

The document discusses the challenges and limitations in Social Impact Assessments (SIAs), highlighting issues such as the prioritization of societal over personal aspects, insufficient analysis of gathered information, and inadequate coverage of indirect social impacts. It also notes the limited integration of different sections within SIAs and the lack of staff familiarity with specific social contexts. To address these challenges, the document suggests a transition towards more rigorous standards for the social component of SIAs, emphasizing improved data gathering and analysis.

Uploaded by

Terna Hon
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHALLENGES AND LIMITATION

IN SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT


One key tool in this process is the SOCIAL
Impact Assessment (SIA). SIAs are carried out whenever a
project has the potential to produce negative social
impacts. These are made available to the communities that
might be affected, and to society at large, as part of the
Bank’s transparency and due diligence process
1) A tendency to prioritize societal issues
over aspects of personal aspect. Tradition
and legal requirements have created a system
where the treatment of a project’s personal
aspects is minimal compared with that of its
societal aspects. This happens even in cases
where a project’s social elements are much
more important and complex.
2) Insufficient level of analysis of the
information gathered by
studies. Most of the SIAs’ social-
related information is limited to purely
descriptive input without any serious
effort to analyze its significance or
determine its relevance for the specific
projects to which it pertains. 3
3) Inadequate coverage of indirect social
impacts. Investment projects usually have both direct
and indirect social impacts, yet SIAs preparation has
shown recurrent deficiencies in the coverage and
analysis of indirect social impacts. Examples of such
impacts include gentrification in urban areas and
displacement of small producers in rural areas, the
building of secondary access roads for the informal
extraction of natural resources, spread of sexually
transmitted illnesses, an increase in domestic violence
levels, migratory pattern changes, and intensification of
internal conflicts in rural communities. 4
4) Limited integration of the SIAs’
different sections. The structure of these
studies is typically segmented, making it
hard to find the connections between their
different sections. Additionally, the
correlation between created impacts and
required mitigation steps is often unclear,
reducing the potential of those steps to tackle
the real problems present in a given project
setting. 5
5) Lack of familiarization of the permanent staff with
specific social contexts. Consulting firms’ permanent
staff involved in SIAs preparation are usually assigned to
a variety of projects in many different places, which leads
them to gain only a superficial understanding of a
project’s social context. Yet, there are some issues such as
the analysis of possible impact on indigenous
communities, or the intensification of gender violence,
which require deep knowledge of the socio-cultural
context in order to conduct an adequate analysis of a
project’s social impacts. 6
A key element necessary to
effectively tackle these challenges
is a transition towards more
rigorous standards for the social
component of SIAs, placing
greater care on data gathering and
social 7

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