Gather Risk - Develop a tool to continuously assess social, political and economic events

Develop a tool to continuously assess how social, political and economic events affect Barrick's current and potential operations.

Challenge Description

At Barrick, we know that our license to operate – ie. the support of communities and government – is what allows us to operate. Therefore, it is crucial that we stay up to date with the trends that could pose a threat to our license to operate. 

Barrick operates around the world and, like many of our industry peers, needs to monitor trends where we operate. On a periodic basis, data is manually collected on a range of key social, political, economic and environmental indices to analyze risks and opportunities related to our license to operate a on country-by-country basis.

User Story

The process of sourcing, monitoring and amalgamating data to analyze risk is time-consuming and does not systemically consider political and social sentiment, trends and events (including protests, media coverage and major events). This manual process also limits our ability to have a holistic view of country trends.

Creating an automated and dynamic tool will not only allow us to better manage our risks and opportunities, but will also support smart decisions that benefit our community and country partners.

Potential Areas to consider

• Can an automated business dashboard be created to capture country risk within the scope of following indicators: environmental, social, political and economic (including weighting and scoring to create a composite metric)?

• How can the model consider Barrick’s existing financial and political relationship with the country? Ideally, all financial amounts should be presented in USD.

• Can the model and dashboard be scaled to work for any country?

• How can the model consider outside perspectives from stakeholder groups (investors, NGOs, media)?

Mentors

Lead Mentor: Karine Lachapelle, Senior Manager, Risk Management

Khadeeja Sajid, Sustainability Analyst