Cross-Cultural Consulting Services (CCCS) is a consulting firm that specializes in Indigenous Peoples and aligned social development issues. Lately we have focused almost exclusively on facilitating projects achieve the new international Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) standard of the MDBs. CCCS helps client organizations to facilitate social development planning via social assessments and impact analyses, design of project consultation and grievance redress mechanisms, and progressive strategies for participatory self-governance among project-affected communities. We emphasize productive and results-oriented dialogue between community, corporate, and government stakeholders. CCCS specializes in Indigenous Peoples safeguard policy frameworks. In our capacity as social development consultants, we never speak on behalf of the people and communities with whom we consult. We act instead as interlocutors—utilizing our anthropological sensitivity to cultures (including the cultures and values of corporations and governments) to help all parties to understand and overcome the challenges of cross-cultural dialogue. We operate according to the principle that all stakeholders are worthy of mutual respect and have the right to be heard.
