Community benefits and social engagement framework for Colombian offshore wind
Context
Magenta Renewables worked with Ocean Energy Pathway (OEP) and the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME) to research and construct a framework for community benefits and social engagement, for Colombia’s emerging offshore wind sector. Following the World Bank offshore wind roadmap process, the government has initiated a first competitive process for offshore wind. This project aimed to combine local context and international best practice into a comprehensive set of findings and recommendations specific to Colombia, to ensure that local and regional positive impact from planned infrastructure investment is optimised.
Community workshop (credit: MásPorTIC).
Magenta approach
With our local partners, we combined desktop and field research from the Colombian Caribbean and existing OSW markets, to develop a proposed community benefits and social engagement framework for the industry.
The project directly consulted and factored the views of over 200 people in the region.
This supports the government, developers and communities in setting up the structures and support to maximise the OSW opportunity.
Throughout this project, we incorporated knowledge from three categories: 1) outcomes of our research under this project, 2) international best practice and experience and 3) consideration of the Colombian context.
Outcomes
The project concluded that:
Community benefits are a strategic tool for social license and project success. There is a strong ethical case - effective community benefits ensure that value (derived from natural resources, i.e. the wind and the seabed) is retained in the host communities.
Investors are more likely to commit capital when they see a high chance of gaining a durable social licence to operate. A well-designed Community Benefit Fund (CBF) is a proven instrument to build that licence by aligning project value with local priorities.
Colombia’s 1% New Transfer Law already signals a strong ambition to share benefits with host communities; however, targeted adjustments are needed to strengthen social buy-in, reduce conflict risk, and make the OSW sector more attractive to investors.