Last Friday, our chief executive, Mark Cutifani, and International Alert’s Secretary General, Dan Smith, marked the start of the second 3-year memorandum of understanding, at our London headquarters.
International Alert (Alert) is one of the world’s leading peace-building organisations and focuses on issues influencing peace and conflict, such as governance, economics, gender relations, climate change and social development, in high-risk geographies.
We began our partnership with Alert in 2010 and since then have enjoyed a fruitful collaboration extending into a number of areas.
Alert has helped us to implement the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPs). These are a set of principles designed to guide companies in maintaining the safety and security of their operations, within an operating framework that encourages respect for human rights. Alert conducted a gap analysis at all four of our business units in South Africa and their recommendations and suggested actions are now being put into action both at corporate and at individual businesses. Representatives from Alert also regularly participate in our internal working groups on resettlement, security and human rights.