One of the most important aspects of IRMA is its commitment to serving diverse stakeholders equally. While industry associations might draw on the expertise and input of nonprofit groups and communities when setting their standards, IRMA provides these stakeholders with an equal voice—and vote—in IRMA’s governance.
Beyond your participation in the governance of IRMA, we seek to ensure communities and broader civil society are engaged throughout the audit process by:
- publicly noticing when an IRMA audit is about to occur
- undertaking active outreach to hear civil society’s perspective on mine performance during the audit
- publicly sharing the audit results, with detailed notes on the mine’s performance so NGOs and communities have a clear picture of a mine site’s practices
- providing a grievance mechanism for concerns to be raised following the audit
IRMA looks to mining-affected communities and representatives from the nonprofit sector to:
- help build broad public awareness of issues in the mining sector
- ensure IRMA’s Standard for Responsible Mining continues to represent best practice
- encourage purchasing companies to ask their suppliers to engage in IRMA
- encourage mining companies to be audited in IRMA
As community representatives and civil society leaders, you can use IRMA to:
- learn about an existing mine’s performance and measure how it performs against IRMA’s standard, the world’s most comprehensive definition of best practices in mining
- evaluate a new mine’s proposal against the Standard
- use IRMA as a template to improve laws and regulations in your region
If you are a nonprofit organization or community group, we welcome your membership in IRMA, which is free of charge for representatives from these sectors. Membership allows you to:
- vote for board representatives for your sector
- attend IRMA’s member-only meetings
- connect with, learn from and collaborate with others in your sector
- connect with, learn from and collaborate with stakeholders outside of your sector
- publicly demonstrate your leadership in fostering more responsible mining practices
- access members-only communication
It is important to note that members from the NGO and community sectors must:
- agree to make statements that engaging in IRMA is an active way for mining companies and purchasers of mined materials to improve environmental and social responsibility
- communicate that audit reports are valued for providing key information to support more informative dialogue between stakeholders
Tools
- Resources for Communities and Labor
- Sample letter to mining companies
- Minsus Infografía: Vinculación de las solicitudes de información con el Estándar IRMA (Minsus Infographic: Linking Information Requests to the IRMA Standard)
- Examples of comparing policy against the IRMA standard:
