MALAYSIAN ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (MSIA) : June 2013

30 June 2013

MSIA FORUM IN CONJUNCTION WITH ITS 8TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

An Invitation to MSIA Forum in Conjunction with its 8th Annual General Meeting. There will be two presenters who will share their experiences and this will be followed by an open discussion by MSIA Members. The Speakers are:

1. Dr. Gaim James Lunkapis, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Science, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, also a Member of MSIA. He will present on The Quality Of Social Impact Assessment Within the Environmental Impact Assessment in Sabah.

2. Kamaruzaman Bin Hussen, Senior Assistant Director, Strategic and SIA Division, Highway Planning Unit, Ministry of Works, Malaysia. His presentation is entitled The Role of Social Impact in Highway Planning.
Moderator: Philip Philipose

Details are as follows:
Date       : 5th July 2013 (Friday)
Time      : 4.00 – 5.00 pm.
Venue   : Bilik Tanjung, Jabatan Perancangan Bandar dan Desa Semenanjung Malaysia

, Jalan Cenderasari,50646 Kuala Lumpur.

Your participation is appreciated.

Secretariat
MSIA

11 June 2013

WHEN AND WHERE IS SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT REQUIRED?

by Rabel J Burdge and C. Nicholas Taylor

www.tba.co.nz/pdf

The purpose of this paper is to identify those parts of the world where social impact assessment is required and what organizations, institutions and laws there are in place to carry out and enforce SIA practice. Some conclusions are drawn about expanding SIA practice. To accomplish this purpose we contacted practitioners in countries where large mineral, water, petroleum and construction related projects were likely to take place or countries with private sector companies doing the exploration and development. We asked the following questions:

1. Does your country, state, province or other governmental unit have legislation that requires

Environmental Impact Assessments—e.g., NEPA style legislation?

2. If they answered yes to the first question…” is there wording in the legislation to include the

social impacts on the human environment or human communities?”

3. Are there specific agencies or governmental organizations that have a specific requirement

to do social impact assessment? If yes, which ones?

If there are specific requirements to do social impact assessment, how are the regulations or

requirements enforced, e.g., terms of references, to obtain a permit or by legally enforceable

legislation? Many countries now have some type of environmental policy legislation modeled after the original National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) legislation. We also received responses from the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Community (EU), the Canadian International Development Administration (CIDA) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).There are other reasons beyond a legal or institutional mandate to undertake SIA. These include emerging approaches (a business case) aligning SIA with corporate social responsibility to minimize social risks and increase project social benefits, including the social license to operate and Free and Informed Consent based in human rights frameworks (Vanclay and Esteves, 2011).

FORUM “IMPROVING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN POLICY & PROJECT PLANING - SPECIAL FOCUS ON INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS”

ERE Consulting Group will organize a forum on “Improving Public Participation in Policy & Project Planing - Special Focus on Infrastructure Projects” on 27 June 2013 at Holiday Villa, Subang Jaya. Please contact Ms Wana or Ms Azian at 03-80242287 if you have any queries before 20 June 2013.

SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN MALAYSIA by Nursyafawaty Binti Abd Rahman

A report submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of achieving Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources, Universiti Malaysia Pahang. November, 2009. http://umpir.ump.edu.my.

ABSTRACT

This study is about social impact assessment in urban development in Malaysia. Inthis study, social impact assessment is described and discussed. Social impactassessment is defined as the process of identifying the future consequences of acurrent or proposed action which are related to individuals, organizations and socialmacro-systems''. In the cities of developing countries, the city's center is grown, sothis is where for certain projects; impact on people can be by far the most importantconsideration. In such cases, a social impact assessment (SIA) is carried out as a partof the process. The study of Social Impact Assessment in Urban Development isbeen carried out in Malaysia. Questionnaire is distributed to the consultant firm,contractor and also government firm for this study. The objective of this study is toassess the way SIA has been used in the past, to consider how social impactassessment in urban development could be improved and to highlight best practicerecommendations and general principals of social impact assessment that are relevantfor urban development. As conclusion, social impact assessment is important to theurban development in Malaysia. The Social Impact assessment in Malaysia can beimproved to prevent the negative impacts.

What is Social Impact Assessment?

The Interorganizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles has defined 'social impacts’ as 'the consequence on human populations of any public or private actions - that alter the ways in which people live, play, relate to one another, organise to meet their needs and generally cope as members of society'. Social Impact Assessment is thus a process to identify, predict, evaluate and communicate information about impacts of a proposed project, policy, programme or plan on a community and their activities, and to detail mitigation measures prior to approval and implementation.

Among others, SIA entails the following scope (but not limited to):-

(i)		analyse and forecast the probable and unintended social impacts to individuals and to the community arising from a development;
(ii)		propose actions to optimize the positive impacts of development, so that the quality of life of the community could be enhanced;
(iii)		propose actions to overcome negative impacts of development so that the quality of life of the community are preserved;
(iv)		monitor the effectiveness of actions taken;
(v)		outcome of SIA can be used for consideration of proposed development approvals.

SIA is often done to choose the best development option based on public participation. Thus, SIA is highly beneficial to project proponents, individuals, communities, government agencies, local authorities, and NGOs – thereby contributing to better governance through transparency and informed decision-making. Most importantly, the SIA process empowers the public in shaping their communities.

Social Impact Assessment to be Mandatory

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 2008 – The Government is set to adopt a radical approach in the planning of development projects by enforcing the social impact assessment. Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said the government was developing a blue print for such an assessment to facilitate and encourage its wider implementation at the policy, planning, programme and project levels. Towards this end, she said her ministry’s Institut Sosial Malaysia had implemented training programmes to increase the number of trained professionals in social impact assessment.“For too long, social impacts have been subordinated to economic concerns and little consideration given to the effects of development (in social aspects),” Dr Ng said in her speech at the opening of a seminar, Social Impact Assessment In The Asean Region, today. Her speech was read by ministry secretary-general Datuk Faizah Mohd Tahir. Dr Ng said social problems could be avoided or minimised if social impact assessment was implemented as it empowered the public in shaping their communities through transparency and informed decision-making.Meanwhile, Malaysian Association of Social Impact president Professor Asmah Ahmad said the legal requirements of the social impact assessment under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was not fully implemented in the country.“There should be a detailed report on social impacts before any development projects are carried out,” she told reporters on the sidelines of the seminar : Source Bernama