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Simandou Railroad Bridge On March 6, 2026, in Conakry, the NGO Action Mines Guinée presented its annual report on the Simandou iron ore project — and the findings were stark. Across at least three affected areas, the same impacts documented in previous years persist: agricultural land polluted by construction activities, homes cracked by dynamite explosions,…
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Visit to the Mpumalanga site. Photo by Tom Laffay In South Africa, coal dominates the energy landscape—feeding the country’s mineral-energy industrial complex and generating nearly 90% of national electricity. Nowhere is this more visible than in Mpumalanga, a province densely packed with mines and polluting power stations. For decades, communities living on the fenceline have…
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A tank for collecting leaked tar, which contaminated the water system. Photo by Tom Laffay In February 2023, eighteen community leaders and civil society advocates from Guinea’s mining regions travelled to South Africa to learn from communities that have spent more than a century organizing against the harms of industrial mining. Hosted by GroundWorkand local…
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Who we are
Communities First provides technical program and advisory services to private foundations and civil society organizations on human rights and environmental justice of materials for a just transition and climate justice.
In recognition of the gross asymmetry in access to information and power by affected communities and civil society organizations in these contexts, our name “communities first” draws attention to the significant investment of time and resources first needed to help level the playing field, and so support more inclusive development outcomes.
