TANAP – Consultation and Grievance Management for a Mega Pipeline

The Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline (TANAP) is a mega project which aims to bring natural gas produced from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz-2 gas field, and other areas of the Caspian Sea, primarily to Turkey, but also on to Europe. Consultation and grievance management is critical towards undertaking a project of this calibre.

The 1850km pipeline runs from the Turkish border with Georgia traversing 20 provinces across the country and ends at the Greek border in the İpsala district of Edirne.

Pipeline construction. Photo credit: TANAP

Community Consultation Program

A comprehensive community consultation program has been undertaken for the project since 2013. The engagement process for the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) received feedback from over 4,000 stakeholders across the pipeline route. All community consultation activities were documented, analysed and reported in Darzin.

TANAP entered the construction phase in 2015 with four construction contractors managing the development of different sections of the pipeline. TANAP established Darzin licenses for all the construction contractors to share existing stakeholder information captured in Darzin to date and ensure stakeholder engagement data is managed and reported consistently across the board. Darzin is also used by TANAP and contractors for effective grievance management on issues related to land acquisition, and project social and environmental impacts.

Consultation with farmers at Karakeçili Province. Photo credit:Radical

Stakeholder engagement, consultation and grievance management

We have been working closely with TANAP in implementing Darzin to meet their growing teams and changing needs for consultation and grievance management (from the planning phase into the construction phase). Recently we spoke with Zeynep DÖNMEZ, TANAP’s Social Impact Specialist, who is Darzin custodian in TANAP. She had just returned to the office after undertaking training of Darzin freshly released version (Version 5) for the construction contractors. We asked her to share her thoughts and experiences on how the teams have been managing the stakeholder engagement program and grievances.

Zeynep DÖNMEZ (middle, front) undertaking Darzin Version 5 training for Lot 4 construction contractors. Courtersy of Zeynep DÖNMEZ.