As a student, you will have a comprehensive understanding of the critical role that community engagement and social impact management play in ensuring the long-term sustainability of businesses.  

Through the course, you will develop your knowledge and appreciation of key concepts and practical tools to effectively manage social performance, engage meaningfully with communities and key stakeholders, manage social impacts and risks, ensure socio-economic benefit delivery and implement monitoring and evaluation best practices in complex environments. 

You will gain insights into international best practices through an environmental and social governance (ESG) lens. The course emphasises the importance of understanding the internal and external system’s impact and challenges of this practice area in organisations and within local operating contexts, as well as the well-being and professional development of social practitioners.  

By the end of the course, you should have a solid grounding in key principles and practices, enabling them to appreciate the value of stakeholder engagement and effectively managing social impacts and risks. Overall, the course aims to empower you to contribute to sustainable and socially responsible business practices in their respective roles and industries.

What you will walk away with: 

• Develop and apply practical tools to effectively manage social performance and engage meaningfully with communities and key project stakeholders in complex environments.
• Develop effective management interventions for assessing social impacts and risks.  
• Analyse and apply various approaches to manage and maximize the positive impact of socio-economic benefit delivery for communities. 
• Develop and apply monitoring and evaluation best practices in complex environments. 
• Critically assess international environmental and social governance (ESG) best practice and its relation to community engagement and social impact leadership.  
• Analyse the real-world social impacts linked to large project, both internally and externally, and develop appropriate recommendations and management responses. 

Minimum Requirements:

• National Senior Certificate, NQF 4 or equivalent 
• English proficiency

Who should apply:

• Entry to mid-level professionals

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2. Introduction to Human Rights Due Diligence

Course Delivery: Online

Duration: 24 hours (part-time, 2 weeks)

Dates: 1 – 10 April 2025

Course Fee: R25000

Application deadline: Friday, 21 March 2025

Application link: https://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/executive-education/human-diligence/

Course Overview:

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the business and human rights framework and the critical role that ongoing human rights due diligence (HRDD) plays in companies being able to proactively manage impacts and demonstrate that they respect human rights.

Through this course, students will learn key concepts and acquire practical tools to effectively assess human rights risks, act based on the findings, track responses, and transparently communicate how impacts have been addressed. Additionally, students will gain insight into emerging international best practices around supply chain management and ensuring access to effective remedy for affected people.

What you will walk away with: 

• Understand the foundations of business and human rights and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).  
• Proficiently identify and prioritise salient human rights risks
• Know how to effectively integrate human rights due diligence (HRDD) in business practices in line with the UNGPs and related international best practices.
• Critically assess emerging best practices guiding access to effective remedies for business-related harm. 

Course Overview:

The context of businesses and society has evolved significantly. There is a growing recognition that businesses cannot operate in isolation from the communities and societies in which they operate. Understanding community stakeholder engagement within the broader ambit of social impact management in socially complex environments has become increasingly important for businesses globally. This course introduces students to the required knowledge, methods and tools for establishing and sustaining positive relationships with local communities and project stakeholders. 

What you will walk away with:

• An opportunity to network and debate with delegates from different industries and functional areas across sub-Saharan Africa
• Practical on-the-ground experience with a post-programme assignment which ensures that learning is implemented back in the workplace 
• An understanding of the factors influencing stakeholder relations and community engagement. 
• The ability to assess the risks and opportunities associated with different levels of community support and stakeholder relations. 
• Various approaches to stakeholder identification, mapping and analysis based on the project context.  
• Techniques to design effective stakeholder engagement plans. 
• Skills required for effective communication and engagement. 
• A deeper understanding of the causes of conflict and methods for managing conflict. 
• Access to the vast UCT GSB global alumni community

Minimum Requirements:

• National Senior Certificate, NQF 4 or equivalent 
• English proficiency

Who should apply:

• Practitioner to executive-level professionals

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4. Company-Community Conflict Management

Course Delivery: In-person (Johannesburg)

Duration: 24 hours (full-time, 3 days)

Dates: 20 – 22 August 2025

Course Fee: R25000

Application deadline: Tuesday, 22 July 2025

Application link: https://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/start-application/?c=7048355A-8853-4EF2-8734-C14442AB605A

Course Overview:

The fundamental purpose of this course is to help build more conflict-sensitive individuals and organisations, in particular those that are working and operating in highly complex company-community contexts.

To meet this purpose, you are taken on an applied learning journey, using your real-life conflict experiences, deepening your understanding of the nature of conflict, its causes and drivers, and how best to prevent and manage conflict as part of the way your organisation makes decisions and manages their impacts and risks.

What you will walk away with:

• Understand what conflict is and what causes it within the organisation’s context.
• Develop a conflict analysis of the organisation’s operational context.
• Apply an impact and risk lens to understand and respond to conflict.
• Understand the key tasks and tools in a conflict management process, including how to deploy them.
• How to be conflict-sensitive across operational context and business.
• The link between conflict and trauma and applying a trauma lens to understand and response to conflict.
• Anticipate conflict and advise on effectively managing conflict.
• Apply key conflict de-escalation skills.
• How to incorporate conflict considerations into decision-making and organisational management systems.
• Develop a real-life analysis of conflict within operational contexts, including recommendations for effective and ongoing management of conflict for presentation to internal leadership.
• Transform the relationship with conflict, including how to navigate conflict situations with greater sensitivity for improved business and community outcomes.

Minimum Requirements:

• National Senior Certificate, NQF 4 or equivalent 
• English proficiency

Who should apply:

• Practitioner to executive-level professionals

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5. Professional Practice in Community Investment and Development

Course Delivery: In-person (Cape Town)

Duration: 40 hours (full-time, 5 days)

Dates: 6 – 10 October 2025

Course Fee: R37200

Application deadline: Monday, 8 September 2025

Application link: https://www.gsb.uct.ac.za/executive-education/community-investment-development/

Course Overview:

This course provides students with a solid grounding in the dynamics of private sector-led community social investments and economic development (CoSI and ED) within the natural resource sector.

By exploring fundamental concepts, paradigms, models and approaches you will gain the essential knowledge and skills for designing and implementing impactful CoSI and ED programmes. Utilising a mixed-methods approach of theory and hands-on learning, you will develop practical strategies to foster sustainable development and positive change in communities affected by natural resource projects.

What you will walk away with: 

• Understanding private sector-led Community Social Investment and Economic Development.
• Analysing paradigms and complexities impacting community social investments and economic development delivery. 
• Utilising various models and approaches to community social investments and economic development within natural resource projects, including local content, regional economic development, and shared infrastructure.
• Managing processes, including planning, designing, implementing, and monitoring various models and approaches to community social investments and economic development.
• Engaging and collaborating effectively, using participatory approaches and agreement-making, with internal and external community social investment and economic development programme stakeholders and partners.
• Evaluating and adapting community social investment and economic development interventions to achieve sustainable project outcomes.

Minimum Requirements:

• National Senior Certificate, NQF 4 or equivalent 
• English proficiency

Who should apply:

• Practitioner to executive-level professionals