Involvement and participation
Our management model for the restoration programs counts on the involvement of people involved during the definition of strategies, development and implementation of solutions. Our concept of involved people considers local residents, communities representatives and different experts who should take part in the discussions as to guide the actions of Renova Foundation. This model is still under construction and it is aimed at involving society in the main structuring processes.
When faced with issues for which solutions are still to be discovered by science, we seek to involve acknowledgeable specialists, in order to build together the knowledge basis required to solve that matter. Panels, workshops and brainstorming have been held, using methodologies that contribute to the collective construction of understandings. That was the idea on the panel on yellow fever, which sought to understand all possible connections between the disease outbreak in the Doce river basin and the dam incident; same thing for the Tailings Management Workshop, which
involved the participation of tailings experts, water and remediation of degraded areas specialists, as well as representatives of environmental agencies that rule on the subject. Both meetings were be broadcast in real time through our website, another knowledge sharing initiative focused on society.
In matters with direct implications over the lives of affected people, collective construction methods are introduced from
beginning to end. This multiple-hand strategy was the one we used to redesign the Bento Rodrigues urban resettlement master plan. Together, residents themselves concluded the map design for the New Bento.
At the very front line of Renova Foundation, lie our Dialogue teams, who deal very closely with communities, almost always addressing delicate issues like the dispersion of acquaintances after having left their villages, the difficulties in adapting to the new school, the lack of planting area, the homesickness and the simple fact that life unexpectedly followed new paths. Throughout the whole territory along the 40 municipalities, we seek to establish an individual dialogue with all those affected and learn about their needs and wishes.
We can also count on various support channels, that work as points of contact between Renova and society.
Along the following pages, we’ll bring you some examples of how this continuous dialogue has already made a difference in the execution of the programs to be implemented. A multiple learning experience, often imperfect, but which we believe to be the most appropriate way to reach long lasting solutions, which are truly embraced by people.
Restoring affected areas and re-establishing the lives of all those involved will only be effective if made by many hands. Therefore, it is our mission to guide all our actions based on engagement and transparency. Since the first day we took over the recovery activities of the areas affected by the dam breach, we have sought to jointly build solutions with those involved, attentively listening and structurally embracing all matters that were key to each issue.
And we do this in a couple of different ways: