4
Similarly, Kosmos introduced an internally-branded management system called The
Standard, which centralizes our HSES policies and procedures. Designed to reaffirm
our commitment to achieving an incident
and injury-free workplace, The Standard
sets clear expectations and performance
measures that we use to plan and monitor
our corporate, country and project-level
activities.
To help us assess our progress and improve
our governance, we also created a standing
board committee on external affairs and
corporate responsibility. The committee
meets regularly to review country-level
operations and advise management on issues affecting above-ground risk. A newly
developed framework now connects the
details of local operations to board-level
reporting to sharpen understanding and
oversight.
In 2013, Kosmos deepened its commitment
to protecting human rights by joining the
United Nations Global Compact, adopting
the United Nations Guiding Principles on
Business and Human Rights as a touchstone for measuring performance, and
beginning the implementation of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human
Rights. Moreover, through on-the-ground
social impact assessments, we began to
develop a process for identifying and addressing potential issues associated with
our work.
Bringing Our Business Principles to Life
While the progress made at the corporate
level has been significant, it’s the work done
in our host countries that often makes the
most difference.
Kosmos continues to be an industry leader
in promoting transparency by disclosing
the terms of our various petroleum agreements and reporting payments made to
our host governments around the world.
In Ghana, for example, we reported data
to the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) and worked
through the local Exploration and Production Forum, an industry association,
to discuss how we could collaborate more
effectively to improve the GHEITI reporting
process.
In anticipation of spudding our first exploration well offshore Morocco in the Foum
Assaka contract area, we introduced a
nascent oil industry to best practices in
well integrity design and oil spill response
planning, two critical measures aimed at
both safeguarding the environment and
creating a legacy of developing local capacity. Similarly, Kosmos sponsored a series of workshops for key stakehol