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What are the benefits for IA practitioners of applying culturally relevant GBA Plus?

There are many benefits for IA practitioners of applying culturally relevant GBA Plus. To realize these benefits, co-creation, engagement, and partnership with impacted communities are essential. 

  1. Meeting legal requirements: Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus allows practitioners to meet the Impact Assessment Act’s requirements when assessing the potential effects of resource extraction and development projects. It also aligns with international obligations related to the rights and interests of historically marginalized groups  (e.g., United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) and reflects Canada’s commitment to implementing these frameworks through its national policies, action plans, and reconciliation efforts.
  2. Revealing differential impacts: Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus allows for more rigorous analysis that uncovers the differential effects of resource extraction and development projects on diverse populations, including women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse peoples, Elders, people with disabilities and others (See Kairos). 
  3. Exposing systemic inequities: Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus helps reveal systemic inequities and forms of discrimination rooted in colonization, racism, heterosexism, and other systems of oppression. 
  4. Promoting social and ecological justice:  Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus can advance social and ecological justice by respecting the local and Indigenous Knowledge of people in affected communities. Respecting these knowledges can lead to more sustainable resource development practices.
  5. Helping develop targeted mitigation measures: Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus ensures that mitigation measures are targeted and are responsive to the realities of affected communities with diverse needs and experiences. 
  6. Informing decision-making: Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus involves incorporating diverse viewpoints, which can lead to more robust evidence and better-informed decision-making. Additionally, this approach enables a more complex and nuanced understanding of the context, which informs better project design. By considering alternatives related to project design, culturally relevant GBA Plus also supports a more comprehensive sustainability analysis, ensuring that projects are more adaptive, equitable, and resilient over the long term.
  7. Building trust: Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus with attention to its commitments to co-creation, engagement, and partnership helps to build trust with local and Indigenous groups and demonstrates respect for their values, traditions, and knowledges.
  8. Enhancing intercultural humility: Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus can build intercultural humility by encouraging a continuous self-reflective approach to understanding and engaging with different cultures. Recognizing personal biases, being open to learning, and valuing diverse perspectives promotes ongoing education, respect, and empathy in cross-cultural interactions.

Actively working toward reconciliation:  Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus facilitates active reconciliation by fostering meaningful partnerships with Indigenous Peoples, respecting their knowledge systems, and addressing historical injustices. This approach aligns with the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Calls for Justice of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry (see: National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) and Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada). Both the Calls to Action and the Calls for Justice reference the effects of major resource projects, emphasizing the importance of engagement, benefit-sharing, and respect for Indigenous rights in resource development.

Additional details

Culturally relevant GBA Plus in impact assessments offers IA practitioners a robust and evidence-based framework for addressing the diverse and complex needs and interests of communities, groups, or Peoples who are impacted by resource extraction and development projects. This approach is not merely a procedural requirement; it is a commitment to justice, equity, and sustainability that transforms how we envision and implement development projects. It attempts to address the impacts of colonialism and other systems of oppression, such as sexism, ableism, racism, and classism, and move towards reconciliation through concrete actions that prevent harm and redistribute benefits.

At the heart of culturally relevant GBA Plus is the imperative to meet legal requirements. The Impact Assessment Act mandates considering the intersection of sex and gender with other identity factors when evaluating a project’s potential effects. By using culturally relevant GBA Plus, practitioners ensure compliance with the law, which fosters trust and accountability in the assessment process. Moreover, applying culturally relevant GBA Plus aligns with international legal instruments, such as UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples), CEDAW GR39 (CEDAW General Recommendation 39), ILO conventions, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and other key instruments protecting the rights of children and women, reinforcing a global commitment to equity and justice.

However, the value of culturally relevant GBA Plus extends far beyond legal compliance. This analytical tool is pivotal in revealing differential effects and conducting evidence-based impact assessments. It empowers practitioners to pose critical questions to generate data and evidence on how resource extraction and development projects uniquely affect diverse populations, including women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse peoples, Elders, people with disabilities and others. These insights are crucial for identifying specific areas where these groups may face disproportionate challenges, ensuring their voices are not marginalized and unique effects can be addressed in project planning.

Moreover, culturally relevant GBA Plus is instrumental in understanding how systemic inequities, such as poverty, inadequate housing, food insecurity, racialized and sexual violence, underemployment due to discriminatory hiring practices, and limited access to education and training, intersect with project effects. By highlighting how project effects may be exacerbated by existing systemic inequities, applying culturally relevant GBA Plus enables early identification and proactive mitigation of these issues. This is essential for preventing further marginalization and fostering a more inclusive and just society. 

The integration of culturally relevant GBA Plus is an important step towards promoting social and ecological justice. It honours the voices and knowledges of local communities and Indigenous Peoples, and recognizes their historical and ongoing experiences of colonization and/or other forms of oppression. Applying culturally relevant GBA Plus can help redress these injustices through revealing more equitable and inclusive resource management practices that respect and acknowledge the leadership of local and Indigenous groups whose knowledges have been marginalized or overlooked.

Another important aspect of culturally relevant GBA Plus is its ability to inform the development of targeted mitigation measures to address adverse project effects. Culturally relevant GBA Plus enables the creation of interventions specifically tailored to mitigate negative effects that might apply uniquely to specific local populations. Such measures are not only more effective but also more sustainable, as they are deeply rooted in the specific contexts and needs of the communities they serve.

Furthermore, culturally relevant GBA Plus informs decision-making by providing robust evidence that incorporates Indigenous Knowledge and the lived expertise of diverse members of affected communities. Under the Impact Assessment Act (IAA), it is a mandatory requirement to consider Indigenous Knowledge in the assessment process, ensuring its integration into decision-making. This holistic approach ensures that more potential effects are considered, leading to better-informed impact assessments, and promoting sustainable project design and implementation. It highlights the interconnectedness of environmental, social, and cultural factors, fostering an integrated perspective that benefits all stakeholders. Considering the lived expertise of other historically marginalized groups can also improve decisions about projects and help mitigate the negative and uneven effects that can result from resource development and extraction projects.

Building trust with local and Indigenous groups is another critical outcome of culturally relevant GBA Plus. Meaningful engagement with Indigenous groups and local communities, including especially those that have historically been marginalized, fosters collaboration and partnership, which are essential for the long-term success of any development project. This approach demonstrates respect for local and Indigenous leadership, values, traditions, and knowledges.

Moreover, the application of culturally relevant GBA Plus enhances intercultural humility among IA practitioners. It equips them with the knowledge and sensitivity needed to understand and appreciate the cultural nuances and specificities of Indigenous groups, and of other local populations with distinct knowledges, cultures, and values. Intercultural humility is vital for effective communication and for building relationships based on mutual respect and trust.

Finally, applying culturally relevant GBA Plus fosters active reconciliation and support efforts to redress historical injustices, by supporting Indigenous leadership in impact assessment and fostering positive relationships between Indigenous groups and project proponents. Culturally relevant GBA Plus helps acknowledge and address past harms, contributing to healing and establishing a foundation for equitable and respectful future interactions.

Examples

Example 1: Gender impact assessments in extractive industries

An important aspect of culturally relevant GBA Plus is its ability to inform the development of targeted mitigation measures to address adverse project effects. Culturally relevant GBA Plus enables the creation of interventions specifically tailored to mitigate negative effects that might apply uniquely to specific local populations, including women, girls, Two-Spirit and gender-diverse peoples, Elders, people with disabilities and others. Mitigation measures that attend to the realities and uniqueness of diverse community members are not only more effective but also more sustainable, as they are deeply rooted in the specific contexts and needs of the communities they serve. For instance, Oxfam applies gender impact assessments in their work on extractive industries to ensure that the voices of women and marginalized groups are heard and their needs addressed. In Papua New Guinea, Oxfam conducted a gender impact assessment for a mining project, focusing on how the project might affect women’s land rights, livelihoods, and safety. This assessment led to recommendations for gender-sensitive community engagement practices and support for women’s economic activities, including initiatives to improve access to financial resources, promote sustainable agricultural practices, and create safer working environments (see below reference from Oxfam). Five of the Calls for Justice from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquire reference the effects of major resource projects, emphasizing the importance of equitable engagement, benefit-sharing, and respect for Indigenous rights in resource development.

Examples 2: Cedar LNG

Resource development and extraction projects often report on socio-economic benefits of projects, including the number of jobs created. This approach equates jobs with benefits. A culturally relevant GBA plus approach goes further by examining what kinds of jobs are being created, who is getting them, and why this is the case. For instance, men often get better paid jobs in resource development while women, including Indigenous women, get lower paid positions or jobs, including in the service sector (e.g., food service), which often grows in response to resource projects. This means that while some people may benefit from higher wages, others do not. Moreover, influxes of money into local communities can cause or exacerbate inequities by increasing the cost of everyday essentials (including food and housing) and decreasing the availability of housing and support services (shelters, food banks, etc.). 

The Impact Assessment Report (2022) for the Cedar LNG project in BC includes information on expected job numbers and salaries and discusses some level of differential effects, specifically that males and non-Indigenous people are likely to get more jobs and more money from project-related employment. As a mitigation measure, the company plans to implement a gender and diversity program that will focus on increasing employment for underrepresented groups, like women and Indigenous people. The application of culturally relevant GBA Plus could help attend to other groups’ experiences with differential access to employment, such as people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, both of whom face challenges related to attaining and retaining employment (Brennan et al., 2022). A more comprehensive analysis of impacts could identify these challenges so that specific mitigation measures could be implemented or required. 

The Cedar LNG Impact Assessment Report also notes that the increase in jobs and rise in the cost of living caused by the project could increase food insecurity. Food security could also be impacted by changes to the marine environment or marine traffic, thus altering the ability for people to participate in harvesting activities, which could decrease the food supply for Indigenous people in the region. Applying a culturally relevant GBA Plus lens would require asking further questions about whose health would be impacted from food insecurity and/or changes in food access or supply. Women and pregnant women, for instance, are more at risk of food insecurity, in part because of the gender wage gap, and in part because of calorie and nutrition needs during pregnancy. This gap may be exacerbated if men are getting the higher paid jobs with the project. Indigenous people have higher rates of food insecurity, with even higher rates for Indigenous women and girls (Bond and Quinlan, 2018). Moreover, lone mothers and racialized families (Statistics Canada, 2023) as well as people with disabilities (Uppal, 2023) are more likely to experience food insecurity. Women and girls are also more at risk from contamination of the food supply, such as fish contamination from an oil spill (see below reference Bond and Quinlan, 2018). These differential effects from increases in food insecurity suggest the need to consider specific mitigation measures that could help protect those more at risk from changes that would be caused by different but overlapping aspects of the project.

Citations and useful resources

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