Galiano strives to have a positive economic, social and environmental impact through our corporate social responsibility activities, many of which are aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The United Nations launched the 17 SDGs in 2015 which are a call to action for all countries, both developing and developed, to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. The SDGs recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and addresses a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection. You can read more here:
These are the 8 SDGs that Galiano is contributing towards achieving:
SDG #1 - End poverty in all its forms
Our Mine contributes significantly to the prosperity of our local communities and our host country, Ghana. Through much needed employment opportunities in rural Ghana, supporting local businesses and in-country supply chains with the purchase of goods and services, investments in community projects and statutory payments to government.
- 99% of our workforce are Ghanaian.
- 52.8% of our workforce are from our local communities.
- We spent $243.5 million on in-country procurement, supporting 307 Ghanaian businesses.
- We supported 59 businesses from the Ashanti Region, procuring goods and services valued at $24.1 million in 2019.
- Over $1 million invested in a range of community projects, including health initiatives, infrastructure, sanitation and access to clean water over the past couple of years.
SDG #2 – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
We support the development of initiatives to enhance local food security and provide supplies, technology, and training to the youth.
- The Mine's environmental management teamed up with 20 students and 5 teachers at the Manso Adubia Senior High School to inaugurate the Green Champions Program as a catalyst for community compost preparation.
- The Green Champion Program objective is to redirect organic waste from landfills and provide a steady supply of organic material to grow healthy trees and other crops.
- This new and innovative project supports the Mine's Tree Planting and Compost Preparation Program and provides educational training, skills, and job experience to eager young students.
SDG #3 – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
We support improved health and well-being amongst our workforce and our local communities with a number of occupational and community health programs.
- We have an award-winning malaria prevention program at the mine, which has successfully reduced the employee malaria incidence rate by 6% in 2019.
- We are working on year 2 of 3 on the Obaatanpa Maternal and Child Health Improvement Project and partnership with focus on efforts within the Amansie West and South Districts. This program has had some notable achievements, including the reduction of maternal and infant mortality as well as provisioning essential medicines and other medical supplies to public health facilities in the vicinity of our Mine.
- We facilitated a capacity-building training workshop in maternal and infant care for over 50 health professionals (midwives and nurses). This workshop was facilitated by two Canadian specialists (pediatrician and an obstetrician) with two Ghanaian doctors as co-facilitators. Participants were awarded with an international certificate.
SDG #4 – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning
An educated local workforce is essential to our long-term viability and success. We support high quality local educational standards through a series of measures including a literacy program, inter-school competitions and the provision of mobile library services.
- We expanded the Literacy Improvement Program in partnership with the Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE) and the Ghana Book Trust (GBT). The first phase of this project covered twenty-six (26) basic schools and the second phase was launched during the year under review to upscale the original program to include an additional eight (8) beneficiary schools selected within the Esaase Gold Project Area.
- We organized a reading competition during the year to evaluate the progress and positive impacts of the reading and comprehension abilities of pupils in our host communities.
- We provide school fee subsidies (primary, junior high, senior high and tertiary) for employees' children.
SDG #5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
We have a zero-discrimination policy towards recruitment and a formal Galiano Women in Mining Charter. We also encourage economic empowerment of women in our local communities through skills training, employment opportunities and access to capital.
- 10.3% of our workforce are female, above the average of 7% in the Ghana mining industry.
- We have wage equality for female employees compared to men in similar roles at the Mine.
- We have a number of female-friendly policies to ensure we attract women to our workforce. This includes a policy to provide new mothers with nursing assistance at the Mine, additional accommodation provided for the nannies of nursing mothers to enable them to stay onsite with their babies, and as well as entitlement to 16 weeks of full-paid maternity leave which is 4 weeks longer than local labour law, and 2 weeks longer than International Labour Law.
- We enable women access to financial literacy, savings, and capital through two branches of the Obotan Co-operative Credit Union (OCCU), which we support. At December 31, 2019, the OCCU had 2,093 members with women comprising approximately 54% of the membership base and approximately 45% of the finance loans were dispersed to women.
- We provided 39 female students with three-month internship training positions and undertook 1,570 hours of training to our female workforce.
SDG #6 – Ensure access to water and sanitation for all
We are committed to responsible water management and improving access to clean water.
- We drilled 18 wells in 2019 to provide convenient water access to nearby villages.
- We frequently test water quality in the surrounding environment and an independent laboratory is contracted to perform monthly water quality monitoring of surface and groundwater wells.
- We periodically monitor wells located near our operating pits to provide information on the impact of our dewatering on the groundwater table and the potential impact our operations could have on nearby communities.
SDG #8 – Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all
We contribute to sustainable economic growth in our local communities and host country through employment, support for the local supply chain of goods and services, community investment and payments to governments.
- 99% of our workforce is Ghanaian, of which 52.8% are from our local communities, providing much needed employment.
- In 2019, 59 of the Mine's suppliers are from the Ashanti region, providing goods and services amounting to $24.1 million.
- The Obotan Co-operative Credit Union supports over 2,000 local community members.
- We paid approximately $13.8 million in royalties and taxes to the Ghanaian Government in 2019.
- In 2019, we spent $243.5 million on in-country procurement, supporting 307 Ghanaian businesses.
SDG #15 – Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
Mining operations can have a detrimental impact on the environment if they are not properly and rehabilitated. We are committed to restoring all habitats we disturb to the highest level practicably possible, and we have a concurrent rehabilitation program to minimize the overall footprint of our mine.
- In 2019, we began rehabilitation work on 8.3 hectares of land including re-sloping, erosion control, topsoil recovery and management and tree planting.
- We launched a field trial to test the viability of producing maize on the reclaimed section of the Nkran Waste Rock Dump. The test is a key step towards fulfilling our commitment to re-integrate reclaimed lands into the local agricultural economy. The Obaatanpa maize variety was selected as it represents an important source of food to our local communities.
- We provided training to senior and junior high school students in biodiversity and habitat restoration with attendees learning about planting techniques and ongoing care measures to increase the survivability of saplings.