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Social Responsability

IBT Group invests in social welfare in the countries where it operates. Our approach focuses on impacting people's quality of life, advancing social development, and improving the environment in local communities.

At IBT Group, we are proud of the positive impact that our projects have on society.

Our social responsibility policy revolves around 9 key objectives:

• Respect the law in force in the countries where we do business, while adopting complementary international standards such as the ILO Conventions where there is no law to guarantee the application of our principles and values.
• Adopt practices of corporate governance in line with internationally recognized good governance recommendations and which are based on transparency and mutual trust with partners and investors.
• Support the development of policies and procedures for the management of occupational relationships that are based on equal opportunities, non-discrimination, and respect for diversity. In addition, provide a working environment that is safe and healthy for our employees.
• Respect human rights and workers’ rights as set out in our Code of Conduct.
• Establish transparent relationships with our suppliers, encouraging the improvement of their skills, as well as the level of quality and service. In addition, we are committed to conveying our social and environmental responsibility policies all throughout the value chain in order to increase the multiplier effect and the positive impact of our operations by means of a selection and recruitment process in which responsible management is paramount.
• Promote a culture of respect for the environment and biodiversity, minimizing the environmental impact of our business activities in all project phases.
• Reject every form of corruption, not allowing the company and its employees/partners to obtain unlawful advantages that do not respect the rules of transparency and free competition.
• Enhance dialogue with different stakeholders in order to achieve a balance between our business goals and social expectations, doing so through responsible communication with the local communities and the rest of the groups associated with our activities.
• Provide relevant and truthful information about the main business activities carried out, subjecting said information to internal and third-party verification processes in order to guarantee its reliability.

Social action

We are a company that operates on a global scale and under many different geographical conditions, and we often come up against social environments severely lacking healthcare services, sewerage, education, and infrastructure.

This reality leads us to a growth strategy based on a transparent, innovative business model that generates value for everyone in a way that is respectful to the environment while contributing to local development and working to maintain respectful relationships with all the social actors in the place where business is are being undertaken.

We are convinced that listening to the different stakeholders is a key point, that is the reason why we establish permanent communication channels with them. In addition, special attention is payed to the collaboration set up with institutions sharing our values and contributing to social protection. 

With the aim of sorting out the donation granting process and unifying the company's policies in this regard, we adopted a Social Support Protocol -- a document that includes the entire process from the receipt of a request for social support to the monitoring and assessment of the aid granted.

Disabilities

At IBT Group, we believe that the disability does not come before the person, that is why we put our faith in individuals with disabilities in two ways:

• By supporting the work of nonprofit organizations that work for their benefit, such as the “Fundación También” ("Me Too Foundation"), which seeks the social integration of people with disabilities by using sport in Spain.
• By strengthening our project for the occupational inclusion of people with disabilities in the hospital complexes of Peru, where there are already 65 people with disabilities who work with us.

Childhood

Because children are the future and we are concerned about their physical, emotional, and educational development, we try to support both their specific needs (identified in our operations' areas of impact) and projects undertaken by non-profit organizations working for child welfare.

In Panama we work with the "Asociación Pro Rescate de la Niñez y la Juventud" ("Association for the Rescue of Children and Youth") to encourage the practice of sport as a healthy life habit amongst children in very low-resource settings, as well as with the school scholarship program for children with few resources managed by the "Asociación de Damas Españolas Panameñas" (Association of Spanish Panamanian Women").

In the Dominican Republic, we provide school supplies to two schools for children with few resources located in Santo Domingo.

In Ecuador, we support the children from the community affected by our project through recreational activities, healthcare, and educational support.

In Peru, we collaborate with the "Hogares Infantiles de Nuevo Futuro" ("New Future Children's Homes") that provide shelter and care to children who have been
abandoned. 

In Ghana, we support the Universal Wonderful Street Academy,  a non-profit organization aiming to eradicate extreme poverty and improve the living conditions of children in Accra. We provide water in tanker trucks to the school and to the families of the community of Jamestown, whose homes do not have running water.

Healthcore

In Peru, we contribute to the hotel run by the "Fundación Peruana de Cáncer" ("Peruvian Cancer Foundation"), which provides lodging for families with few economic resources who live outside of the capital for as long as treatment lasts.  Likewise, in Panama, we support the "Asociación de Amigos y Voluntarios del Instituto Oncológico Nacional" (Association of Friends and Volunteers of the National Cancer Institute").

Emergencies

The unusual number of mudslides and flash floods which have affected various areas of Latin America in recent years is one of the consequences of climate change. El Niño, which was experienced throughout 2016 was, in addition, one of the main triggers for these devastating natural events.

In order to assist with the mudslides suffered by Peru in the month of March as a result of flooding caused by El Niño on the coast, we have contributed financially, from Spain, in support of the Santos Toledano Foundation, which works to help the victims. We have also helped from our Lima office with different acts of solidarity organized by the company, such as the donation of medicines to the NGO "Ayudando Perú" ("Helping Peru") and our employees made a financial donation to "Cáritas del Perú" ("Caritas of Peru") and also donated clothing and food to the #Unasolafuerza National Campaign.

Environment

The preservation of biodiversity is also a factor that IBT Group takes into account right from the project's conception, as the group is aware that social development is directly linked to the use of natural resources and respect for other forms of life in relationship with the different ecosystems.

In Peru, we work with the NGO "Ciudad Saludable" ("Healthy City") for the recycling of the recoverable solid waste generated by our hospital complexes, contributing to the environment as well as the training program for the waste pickers who live socially excluded.

In the Dominican Republic, we have contributed to the environmental rescue of Constanza with the planting of 4,000 plants of different species, adding to the more than 40,000 trees planted in the area, assisting the communities that live from the resources said plants provide.

Waste management, energy efficiency, and recycling are implemented in our projects -- these being especially intense in our concession contracts.  This is because permanence in the management and administration of our health centers allows us to tackle ambitious, scalable environmental improvement objectives that last in time and translate into better environmental management, likewise yielding financial savings.

Questions

If you want to know more about how IBT Group contributes to improving people's quality of life through social and environmental responsibility, contact us at: rsc@ibtgroup.com