Implementing FPIC Successfully | Cross-Cultural Consulting Services (CCCS)

Implementing FPIC Successfully a core CCCS service

CCCS CEO Dr. Greg Guldin is offering his decades-long social development experience working with indigenous communities to support Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), private firms, and government agencies in their implementation of the new FPIC standard.

While the requirement of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) for projects affecting the natural resources, causing relocation, or appropriating cultural heritage has long been a demand of Indigenous Peoples worldwide, only recently has FPIC been elevated to a new global standard. But how to achieve this new standard?

FPIC has been seen as a project-stopper, but our experience demonstrates that FPIC can both be achieved and a project-saver when our lessons learned are followed:

Embracing the Past: Legacy issues are acknowledged and defused so as to build trust and lessen chances for discontent to emerge later
Engaging the Present: Transparent, inclusive, and collaborative planning for social development invites local indigenous buy-in
Assuring the Future: Build FPIC into social development planning so that Indigenous Peoples Plans are co-implemented by indigenous communities–and harmonized with local government plans
Working with Trusted Local Organizations: Engage an IPO/NGO with credibility which can be accepted by all sides as neutral facilitator; this is the FPIC Facilitator Organization (FFO)

Of course, these pointers are just the outlines of Good FPIC Practice. But they can pay dividends in both the short-run (achieving FPIC) and long-term (maintaining a social license to operate). See below for some other factors to consider when figuring out how best to achieve FPIC.

The FPIC Process: Preliminary Steps

A project seeking to achieve the free, prior, and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples affected significantly by a project will need to first carry out a few key steps:

FFO: Selecting the right Indigenous Peoples Organization (IPO) or NGO to act as the FPIC Facilitator Organization (FFO) to facilitate the FPIC process is the crucial first step
FPIC Specialist: selecting one person whose sole responsibility is to make sure the FPIC process is progressing and the key FPIC stakeholders are in continuing collaboration and communication
Representative Selection Process: This needs to be inclusive in terms of gender, generations, economic status, vulnerability, etc.; it needs to be worked out with the FFO and local people
Indigenous Peoples Advisory Council: Once the representatives are selected they form an advisory council to make decision on the entire FPIC process--and beyond
FPIC Working Group: To facilitate Advisory Council decisions and to give direct inputs into the project community development planning process, the Council selects some of its members to work directly with the project (and possibly local government representatives)
Capacity-Building Assessment: Early on, an objective assessment of the partners' capacity for IPP/FPIC planning and response is necessary, with training provided as necessary
Bottom-up Needs Assessment (Community Mapping): The FFO conducts a participatory needs assessment with the project-affected communities to determine priorities for an Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP)

The FPIC Process: Critical Steps

Consent Process Agreement (CPA): discuss with local people how to arrange the consent process
Three Rounds of Village Consultations: i. introduce project/FPIC/IPP process; gather community priorities ii. submit first IPP draft, other document drafts iii. revised IPP draft and related documents
Three Rounds of Meetings (after each Round of Consultations): the Advisory Council and the Working Group consolidate community preferences regarding project planning
Consent Decision
Spirituality & Culturally Embedded: maintain the values and preferences of local people throughout the FPIC and project planning process

Key FPIC Documents: Consent Set of Documents (CSD)

Documenting the FPIC process from beginning to end is critical. And the key documents are produced are a project's ticket to loan approval and to continuing project social health.

First, are the absolutely necessary documents:

FPIC Consent Process Agreement (CPA): This spells out how the stakeholders recognize consent has been achieved, whether by consensus, a vote, or some other means; it's agreed to by the local communities and the project.
Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP; or comparable community development plan): This Plan contains all the mitigation measures and benefits the project commits to carry out, along with a governance structure.
Statement of Consent (SC): This statement contains the approval of the local communities for the project and/or its development plan (such as the IPP); it is the end product of the Consent Process Agreement agreed to early in the FPIC process.

Second, are the highly desirable although not required documents: To reach a positive consent decision, agreements beyond the scope of an IPP might be necessary. It's a good idea to include these type of documents within the FPIC set of documents.

Tripartite Implementation Agreement (TIA): A statement of partnership to jointly implement the IPP (or similar community development plan) by the project, the local community representatives (e.g., the Advisory Council), and the local government. It spells out each partner's roles and responsibilities.
Legacy Issues Document (LID): Not all community demands (or unfulfilled project promises) can be included in the limited scope of an IPP yet ignoring them will not make the community forget them. Recognizing them as fit topics for future discussion "parks" them for the time being and allows the issues to be revisited in the future.

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FPIC Achieved Multiple Times

While many projects have come to agreements with local Indigenous communities, few projects have achieved the more demanding standards of IFC's PS7 or the World Bank's ESS7 with its focus on consent and not just "consultation" or "broad community support." But Greg and CCCS have, repeatedly, and from the start of the requirement of this new standard:

In 2010 and 2015, they achieved the first ever FPIConsent (under the new PS7) for a project in the private sector (as recognized by IFC in 2011) for the Sakhalin 2 Oil & Gas Project in Russia
In 2018, they facilitated the first ever hydropower sector and first ever South Asian FPIC success in the Upper Trishuli-1 Project in Nepal
Between 2013 and 2016, they carried out an FPIC process for an isolated group of Indigenous forest dwellers for the Weda Bay Nickel project on the eastern Indonesian island of Halmahera
In the early 2020s, they worked with ADB and the World Bank to achieve FPIC in the Upper Arun and Dudh Koshi Hydropower projects in Nepal
In 2024, an FPIC-like approach was pioneered in the SGR railways project in Tanzania
Currently working with projects in Ethiopia (highways), Malaysia (hydro), Indonesia (geothermal), to achieve FPIC outcomes to global standards

Other projects and organizations (such as the International Hydropower Association) have also relied on Greg for advice on carrying out successful FPIC projects. The key lessons he has shared with them include:

Gender issues best tackled by local community if directly raised by facilitators
Be aware of Class, Caste, and Ethnic Cleavages
Embrace Legacy Issues: good for short-run (FPIC) & long-run (Social License)
Key roles of IPO and of Senior Project Management
Interpret everything through local culture
Tie in IPP to FPIC: The gift that keeps on giving

Supporting Teams Implementing FPIC

FPIC Implementation Support for Project Social Teams:

Acting as a Senior Advisor, Greg can assist your FPIC implementation team to work through key questions such as:

How to determine when consent is achieved
Who in the communities affected can provide consent
How to deal with previous broken promises and community distrust
What should the role of local governments be in the process? Civil society? the project itself?
How much time and resources to dedicate for the process?
How to avoid consultation fatigue?

This advisory support is carried out in conjunction with the FPIC Implementation Technical Guidelines that Greg was the co-author for published by the Work Bank in 2025.