INERCO Consultoría Colombia technical conferences, HSEC debate forum

In September, INERCO Consultoría Colombia held the fifth edition of its technical conferences, addressing “Environmental and social control and surveillance in workplace health and safety in companies”. These Health Safety Environment and Community (HSEC) technical conferences took place in a space for conceptual discussion with high-level guests representing companies from the public sector, infrastructure, oil&gas, mining and industry.

During the environmental block, panellists analysed the situation since the creation of Law 99 of 1993, which created a normative framework and strengthened environmental institutions, enabling improvements to the planning processes applicable to the use of land and natural resources.

The expert guests agreed that we are witnessing the creation of a new environment paradigm, which is why it is necessary to carry out an in-depth review of legislation in the country, to align it with the desired models of state and country. They also highlighted the need to harmonise the views of the environment held by different actors including the government, NGOs and industry, with a view to prioritising the maintenance of natural resources.

The social block set out from the idea of participative democracy as a constitutional right, starting in 1991, when the institutional regulatory framework was transformed with the promotion of social participation. This evolved over time, giving rise to actors’ broader, active and qualified participation in investment project decision-making. In this way, a project is no longer designed without properly identifying and involving actors and stakeholders.

As these processes finally take the form of commitments, the conversation in this block turned towards how control and surveillance can verify and feed back into the exercise of building and upholding commitments, with the ultimate goal of guaranteeing harmonious, legitimate relationships between projects and stakeholders.

The conference ended with the health and safety block, with expert panellists being workplace health and safety directors from companies including Equión, Cerro Matoso, the Colombian labour ministry and INERCO, addressing the issue of workplace health and safety regulations, which have undergone an evolution that different companies have interiorised and shaped into actions to ensure regulatory compliance. Companies also use their own initiative to develop innovative occupational illness and accident prevention practices.

For Francisco Hoces-Moral, general manager of INERCO Consultoría Colombia, “the HSEC technical conferences organised by INERCO Colombia have become a stage to debate and share useful proposals for improvement in the industrial sector in Colombia. For INERCO, this also means supporting companies in becoming more competitive.”