SIPA Student Works on Monitoring Tool for Sustainable Mining in Chile

June 24, 2019

Eleanor Katz, a Columbia SIPA MPA-Development Practice candidate, is working in Chile from May through July on a Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) project on mining and sustainable development.

CCSI has partnered with a local Chilean consulting group, Dinámica Plataforma, to develop a publicly-accessible tool that maps community development within the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The instrument will first be deployed in communities located near mining projects, and is part of a greater effort for the extractive industry sector to align their projects and corporate social responsibility initiatives with the SDGs. CCSI has associated with Dinámica Plataforma on similar stakeholder engagement projects in the past.

During three months and dividing her time between Dinámica Plataforma’s base in Santiago and field offices in Coquimbo’s Choapa province in the north of the country, Katz will primarily oversee data collection and assimilation, working alongside representatives from CCSI and Columbia’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) as they develop the public monitoring and evaluation tool.

“I look forward to gaining a better understanding of the intersection between extractive industries and community development, while also seeing the beautiful Chilean landscape,” Katz says.