Professor Frank Vanclay told The Malta Independent that Social Impact Assessments enable planners, policymakers, and regulators to make more informed decisions and avoid causing harm. Vanclay is a Professor of Social Impact Assessment and Management at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and has authored many key documents in the social impact assessment field.
He was in Malta recently as a guest of the Department of Sociology at the University of Malta, and will act as an external examiner for the Master's Degree in Social Impact Assessment, a course he had helped design.
A social impact assessment (SIA) is a process designed to identify, analyse, and assess the potential social effects of a proposed project, policy, or development initiative. This is done prior to its implementation, but there also exists the concept of continuous SIAs, to identify issues as a project or policy moves throughout its stages.
Michael Briguglio, an associate professor of Sociology at the University of Malta, gave a brief outline of the use of such assessments in Malta. He said that SIAs are not as systematically embedded in legislation as Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), but references to social aspects and community consultation appear across various laws, policies, and regulatory frameworks. "These include Regional Councils, where they must carry out social impact evaluations within the first year of each legislature, the Planning Authority's tall buildings policy (otherwise it is discretionary in the rest of planning), and Malta Post-Pandemic Strategy (2021) - though it does not seem that this was followed up. Besides, the Planning Authority had opened a public consultation on Social Impact Assessment in 2019. The outcomes of this process are unknown," Briguglio said.
Vanclay, while being interviewed by this newsroom, said that "all projects have the potential to create harm as well as good. The idea is to reduce the potential for harm and to ensure that benefits are created", Vanclay said, highlighting the importance of SIAs. He said that one of the potential negative impacts of projects, whatever that project may be, is that the intended benefits might not always materialise.
When asked, Vanclay said that SIAs could be beneficial to bringing about better development planning, support the Malta Vision 2050 strategy, and play a role in discussions on mass transport.
Speaking about construction development projects in particular, he said that engineers don't necessarily think about things in social terms, "so harm could be created just because they don't comprehend how people could be negatively affected by a project. Social impact assessments have many benefits. One of them is to help in making better decisions in terms of what should or shouldn't be approved".
He said that social impact assessments should not be one-off exercises, and have better outcomes when they are continuous exercises.
"It's a way of thinking and involves analysing, monitoring and managing the positive and negative impacts of a project at different phases. At decision phase, for instance, you need a report to take an informed decision. But then in terms of the ongoing management of a project, it should be a continuous process. The assessment interacts with community engagement actions that projects may have. But it also helps with the beginning design."
The original form of such an assessment was a bit like an environmental impact assessment, where one would have a social impact assessment report, a one-off thing, he said. "But the potential to manage the process better is quite limited in that model. So thinking of it as an ongoing process is a much better way to comprehend how SIAs can be of benefit." He said that in every single action of a project, it could help question how it could be done better to reduce any negative impacts.
Such assessments could include surveys, but also qualitative research methods, focus groups, and interviews. "A whole range of social research methods could be used to inform the process. Listening to people is part of it, but it is also about comprehending what the project is doing that has the potential to create harm. A social impact assessment is often done before a project is established, so someone needs to think about what the potential impacts are, how it could be better designed, and how they could adaptively manage the ongoing project to reduce negative impacts and bring about the benefits."
Vanclay was asked to meet with the MCESD, who said are very open to the ideas of SIAs and are already convinced about their importance. "I am convinced they see that SIAs are relevant and important, and I am sure that our discussion was useful."
Told about the debate surrounding a possible new mass transport system in Malta, and concerns raised regarding cost and questions as to whether disincentives for car use would be needed, he said that a social impact assessment could definitely help in this process. "But it takes more than just a social impact assessment to bring about such change, it takes a comprehensive transport plan, and creating a process of change that will lead to a different way of thinking is quite important," he said, in reference to the change in car culture.
"Coming originally from Australia, like Malta it also has a car-centric culture, and moving to the Netherlands took some getting used to. Many young people in the Netherlands don't drive. Where I live now, it's a very bicycle-friendly place, its impossible for me to own a car because I would have nowhere to park it. It's a very different way of thinking. It took a while to adapt, but now I'm completely convinced that it's a much better life not having a car actually. This idea that the car is so important is a current perspective, but when you wind up changing your mindset, you can see that there is an alternative."
He suggests a national discussion about the current system and its consequences, including that people might not exercise as much as they should, the number of road accidents, air pollution, costs. "The public subsidy because of cars is enormous, in terms of the cost of roads, parking, the amount of space it requires. When you start designing cities in a different way, you can have a very different outcome which can be much better for everyone in the longer-term. But it is a difficult transition. SIAs are not the tool for that transition part per se, but other aspects , such as environmental psychology, can provide useful support."
Asked whether he believes that a strategy such as Malta Vision 2050 should have a continuous social impact assessment, he said that the short answer is yes, but highlighted the importance that the SIA process leads to outcomes.
"Community engagement is important, but it also has to be genuine and meaningful, and people have to hear that they are being heard, but also it ultimately has to make a difference. If their comments are ignored or seem to make no impact on what happens, then people get disillusioned and no longer participate. In principle, vision strategies should function as adaptive management processes that are refined and adjusted over time. Once such a strategy is identified, that is just a start, as putting those strategies into real projects and actions need further research, and also checks to ensure they are the right thing to do."
Asked about the impacts of overpopulation, and how SIAs can help, he said that the most important part of SIAs is to create awareness of what the impacts would actually be. "If there is no process of thinking what the impacts would be, then all of a sudden you would realise that there are issues. By conducting SIAs in advance of projects or alongside their development, it then becomes better to see what the impacts will actually be and how they can be managed. The demand on services, whether it is water supply, sewage and rubbish collection, should be factored in."
There have been calls to conduct carrying capacity studies in Malta's localities in response to overpopulation and intense tourism pressures. "When it comes to dealing with development pressures, it's more than just social impact assessments that are needed. In the end it comes down to the vision for society and what the key strategies are. If you have a pro-tourism strategy, it's not a surprise that you might eventually have an overtourism problem. (...) The role of a social impact assessment would be to see whether such strategies would be and are effective, and what their negative consequences could be, and in turn how those can be tackled."