Understanding the effectiveness of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) : perspectives from South African SIA practitioners

Abstract

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their needs. It is based on three pillars of sustainability: economic; environmental and social sustainability. Sustainable development principle has shifted and brought balance between the biophysical, economic and social impacts during development of projects. As such, it is important to gain an in-depth knowledge of the tool used to assess the social impacts during projects’ development. The tool used to assess social impacts is called Social Impact Assessment (SIA). SIA is a process of identifying and managing social impacts during the development of projects. However, SIA in South Africa is still seen as “less important” in comparison to Environmental Impact assessment (EIA). In order to understand why SIA is still seen as “less important”, this study will probe the perspectives of SIA practitioners to understand their view on the effectiveness of SIA practice in South Africa. The research study had two research objectives; the first research objective is to understand the fundamental purpose and objectives of SIA; and the second research objective is to understand the effectiveness of SIA from the perspectives of South African SIA practitioners. In this study a qualitative research approach is used to explore the existing literature of SIA in South Africa and internationally to identify the existing gaps on SIA effectiveness. For the empirical investigation, data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire from a sample of 18 SIA practitioners in South Africa. The questionnaire sent to the SIA practitioners were comprised of two sections, Section A was about the SIA practitioners’ background and Section B was about SIA effectiveness in South Africa. The data was analysed using a qualitative research methodology approach. In this study three themes emerged from the feedback received from the SIA practitioners. The three themes are SIA practice (Theme 1), SIA effectiveness (Theme 2) and SIA improvement (Theme 3). The research findings for Theme 1 indicated that SIA has a potential to be an effective tool in South Africa provided it is used as a management tool and not used as a regulatory tool as it is currently done. In Theme 2, the lack of a formal training for SIA practitioners and lack of a regulatory body for the SIA practitioners were identified as the obstacles in achieving quality SIA reports (in turn, SIA effectiveness) that complies with the international SIA best practices. And for Theme 3, the participants recommended that a regulatory body should be developed that will manage and monitor SIA practitioners, an introduction of a formal SIA training and peer review of reports, especially of the new practitioners.