Social Cohesion and Social Licence to Operate

In the process of answering these questions, we have developed methodologies for measuring social cohesion at a local level as well as insights into evaluating the impact of interventions aimed at increasing social cohesion.

Social Licence to Operate is a term usually used to refer to the level of acceptance or approval by local communities and stakeholders of mining companies and their operations. In Social Surveys Africa’s mining sector work, we measure the SLO and work with communities, mining companies and local municipalities to improve relationships. We also measure the SLO of other industries with large impacts on local communities, such as energy producers, large-scale manufacturing or commercial agriculture.

We have also adapted our insights from the mining sector to measuring the levels of community and stakeholder acceptance and approval of local government and their services. While local government does not need a ‘licence’ to operate in the same way as a mining company, the government’s ability to provide effective services and engage constructively with local communities does still depend on community residents’ levels of trust and willingness to engage. Where acceptance and approval are lacking, public infrastructure is likely to be damaged and services to be interrupted. Going beyond a simple measure of trust, our battery of questions provides a robust and future-oriented measure of the relationship between a local community and its municipality. This enables an approach to municipal ‘customer satisfaction’ that is multi-dimensional and spatially disaggregated and therefore allows for much better targeting of interventions.