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2021 INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT REPORT
3.6.1 Commitment and social management
Our social commitment is essential to tighten the link with our local communities and to support our sustainable operations.
The company's activities have an impact on our local communities. For this reason, at Cepsa we consider it a priority to proactively manage these aspects by assessing risks and fostering opportunities in the local area.
We integrate into society in the countries and regions where we operate to create collaborative environments and favour the growth of local wealth. We respect each culture and keep communication channels open to identify and respond to local concerns. We also invest in social actions to meet the needs and priorities of society at the local level so as to boost our commitment to the community.
The company has a regulatory framework setting out the principles that should guide this commitment in the 'Manual on Relations with Society', which includes, among other matters, the basic aspects of relations with local and indigenous communities.
SOCIAL RISK MANAGEMENT
At Cepsa we identify and manage the social risks affecting our activity. We assess these risks comprehensively both in the environmental and social authorisation process, through environmental and social impact studies, and in the social risk analyses carried out during project investment and execution. We have reinforced our internal regulations with specific guidance on how to carry out these tasks.
To mitigate the risks identified, measures are put in place to generate positive impacts on local communities, such as, for example, plans to promote the contracting and purchase of local goods and services or the implementation of social investment programmes.
RELATIONSHIP WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Stakeholder identification and prioritisation is the basis for a successful relationship to understand and respond to their needs, paying particular attention to our local communities.
Transparency and communication are also essential. We provide our local communities with specialised teams to communicate and address their concerns, doubts and suggestions relating to our projects. These teams proactively promote actions to encourage community engagement, focusing on specific stakeholders such as neighbours, local and regional authorities, contractors, landowners, traditional leaders and, where appropriate, farming and indigenous communities.
In 2021, in our industrial centres in Spain, relationship-building and communication activities focused on institutional dialogue with local authorities and provincial and regional administrations, as well as with our neighbours, to keep up a dialogue in relation to our activities.
The main community engagement actions relating to our exploration and production operations have focused on providing information, responding to concerns and supporting local development for the local stakeholders, as shown in the table below.
Local community consultation processes have been undertaken on a timely basis for all our current operated exploration and production assets in production through the submission and official publication of environmental and social impact studies, as well as the mechanisms established by the respective governments. In our Colombian assets, consultation and agreements with local communities began in 2021 as part of the abandonment processes to be implemented in the coming years. There are currently no development projects that are in the local community consultation phase.