Impact Assessment and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Comparative Case Study Review of Oil and Gas Industry in Casanare, Colombia and Niger delta, Nigeria.

This paper will focus on industrial development and its impact on environment with both social and economic dimension .The roles of impact assessment as a mitigating instrument to the problems and means of achieving sustainability is examined. However, industries overtime has been approaching sustainable development issues from corporate social responsibility perspective. A critical review of the corporate social responsibility concept and approach is considered to know the extent to which impact assessment instrument is emphasized. Further to that is a look at global compact which is a system to make business act as corporate responsible citizens, even though it has neither “policing or enforcing mechanism”. It is therefore opined that this gap could be bridged by impact assessment. And to illustrate this thinking, comparative review of cases is done in order to know how impact assessment can be use in making partnerships for managing social issues in extractive industry work. The conclusion is that impact assessment principles should be integrated in to corporate social responsibility code of conduct and as a reporting mechanism tool. By these the aim of global compact to achieve sustainable global economy would be realized.