RR interviews Dame Meg Taylor DBE, leading expert on corporate-community conflict and RR Global Advisory Council member
The focus of this interview, the first of RR’s ‘big topic’ conversations, is ‘Big projects and local communities’. Or put another way, what happens when local communities have concerns about giant investments on their doorstep. These may be renewable energy project, or power lines. They could be mines, data centres, nuclear plants, or any other big infrastructure.
How should local people in these situations look to protect their interests? And likewise, how should developers and investors in such projects look to build trust and respond to local opposition?
RR’s guest for this interview is one of the world’s top authorities on exactly these issues, Dame Meg Taylor. Meg kindly sits on the Global Advisory Council of Resource Resolutions. Meg has spent decades working at the cutting edge of corporate-community conflict.
Particularly relevant to this conversation, Meg founded and led for 15 years, the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the World Bank, or CAO for short. CAO is the independent arm of the World Bank whose purpose is to provide recourse for communities impacted by projects supported by the private sector arms of the World Bank (these being the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)).
Separately from her work at the CAO, Meg has had a successful career as a lawyer and international diplomat. She served as Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, Mexico and Canada. She was also Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum. She is now based in Papua New Guinea.
Please note Meg is talking in a personal capacity in this interview rather than representing the CAO or any other organisation, and also her views are her own rather than necessarily those of RR.
Meg was interviewed by Daniel Litvin, Founder and CEO of RR. The producer was Ben MacLeod, Associate at RR. The interview was conducted on 15th December 2025.
Below are some key excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be accessed at the bottom of the page.
Resource Resolutions 