About Us

Yirri Global, LLC provides consulting advice to companies, communities, civil society organizations and governments around the world with a particular focus on risk, opportunity and social performance in the natural resource sector.

We are a boutique consulting firm that offers global social performance counsel to companies, primarily in the extractive sector. We also work with other sectors as well as with communities, government, and civil society. Yirri Global sits and works in that space between financial or industrial entities and communities and strives towards improving that interaction for the benefit of both sides.

Yirri is based on the premise that many companies still regard 'Corporate Social Responsibility' as philanthropy, donation, and sponsorship - throwing only money at the 'problem' or ‘risk’ that local communities can present to a business. It is clear now that government permits, licenses, and regulatory approvals are insufficient.

Communities can slow or halt construction and development, impede production and, in fact, destroy a business or investment entirely. Our experience, worldwide over the last several decades, is that communities can work together with business; they want development and economic growth as long as the environment is protected and as long as they have a role in decisions that impact them.

Communities can be a lower cost option for employment and supply chain, in addition to supporting a peaceful business context. Achieving this is not rocket science and it is not necessarily costly. It requires effective due diligence prior to investment, and during operation and even closure, the building of a social knowledge base, strategic and effective engagement and partnerships and ongoing nurturance of a social license to operate.

Yirri Global can provide comprehensive advice at each of these stages.

Profile of the Principal

Dr J. Chris Anderson is the Director and Principal Consultant for Yirri Global. He is a leading international communities & social performance practitioner, working with the extractive sector as well as with development agencies and Indigenous and other communities. Over more than 20 years, Dr Anderson has worked as an executive for major mining companies (e.g. Newmont Mining Corporation, Rio Tinto & Normandy Mining) focusing on social impacts and land and community issues including stakeholder engagement and agreement-making in more than 17 countries including Australia, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Mongolia, Brazil, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Canada, Indonesia, Mongolia and South Africa.

As well as a social performance practitioner and industry & community problem solver, Anderson is an active academic, teacher and writer. He holds a PhD in Anthropology (based on almost 20 years field work with Indigenous peoples in Australia) from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia and is an Adjunct Professor at that university’s Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining. He is also a Research Associate at the Colorado School of Mines and a past member of the Mining Engineering School’s Industry Advisory Committee. Anderson is a Strategic Advisor with Acorn International (WWW.AcornIntl.net) and a Senior Advisor with Business for Social Responsibility (WWW.BSR.org).

Past roles include Director of the South Australian Museum, Chair of the International Council on Mining & Metals Working Group on Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights and board member of the Open Contracting Partnership. Dr Anderson has won several awards for his work, including a UN Human Rights award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Race Relations, UCLA Pacific Rim Foreign Scholar Award, and Alumnus of the Year at the University of Queensland in 2013. He is the author of more than 60 publications.

Yirri Global has a strategic partnership with Acorn International LLC (https://acornintl.net/our-team/core-staff-global/) for large projects and brings on other team members as needed.

Our Name and Logo

'Yirri' is a Kuku-Yalanji word for 'flowing water'. Kuku-Yalanji is an active Australian Aboriginal language from North Queensland, spoken mostly by people from the Wujal Wujal community on the Bloomfield River and its surrounds. Dr Anderson has had a professional and personal association with Kuku-Yalanji people for more than forty years.

The logo is an Ashanti (Ghana, West Africa) adinkra symbol for 'Reconciliation'.

We have adopted this name and this symbol with support from relevant elders and families