For decades the military-supported government of Brazil was responsible for carrying out hydroelectric projects. Engagement with local communities was not a priority and people were seldom consulted before being removed from their land with little compensation. Times have changed. Much of the construction for Brazil’s energy production is now in private hands. Since the energy crisis in 2001, companies have come under pressure from all sides to increase energy production.

By law energy companies are required to invest a percentage of their profits in social and environmental activities to mitigate the impact of plant construction and energy production. Typically, when energy production was state owned, “representatives” of social and environmental interests were identified by local government. These representatives did not consult the community and often did nothing to carry out mitigation activities, leading to difficult relations with the local community. Often this resulted, in turn, in costly delays to the project.

Votorantim wanted a new way to do business that involved a transparent and participatory process for involving the community before construction began on a small hydroelectric facility in Ibirama, Brazil. Pact was called upon to provide Engagement to Action (E2A) services to help the company create a process wherein resources would go to true local priorities and were controlled by members of the community and their organizations.

Pact provided technical support and facilitation to Votorantim, including assistance to:

• Conduct of appreciative inquiry interviews with leaders of thee municipalities to determine local development priorities and identify issues involved in construction of the hydroelectric facility;
• Design and implement a survey using appreciative inquiry to collect information on community attitudes and perspectives of a statistically representative section of the communities involved and;
• Accommodate the concerns and hopes of the local community in the licensing process.