with lenders and insurers, differentiating "social spending" from "risk mitigation." Nuestros Saberes operates precisely at this boundary: it transforms education and information into territorial management capacity, reducing asymmetries and strengthening trust, which helps decrease the likelihood of conflict escalation. For investors, the program provides three value creation mechanisms: M1. Risk mitigation: Strengthens informed participation, transparency and communication channels, reducing the probability of crises. M2. Investment efficiency: Increases the "absorption" and social productivity of existing educational and productive investment, by building skills and producing evidence. M3. Post-operation sustainability: Installs intergenerational capacities and institutional anchors (public library network) that sustain benefits beyond the direct presence of the company. 9. LIMITATIONS AND RESEARCH AGENDA This article presents a design validation with initial results. It does not include a longitudinal impact study or a comprehensive comparative performance analysis, which is proposed as a future research agenda. Furthermore, the program's transferability and scalability require cultural adaptation for each region, coordination with educational institutions, and logistical adjustments regarding connectivity and human resources. Developing a theory of change that aligns with the sociocultural realities of the areas where the program is intended to be implemented is imperative. 10. CONCLUSIONS Nuestros Saberes proposes a replicable model of co-responsibility that improves social management in mining by transforming education into a sustainable territorial asset and structuring a participatory circuit for the production of sociocultural and census information. Validation of the design demonstrates consistency with due diligence frameworks (IFC, IDB) and social performance maturity tools (ICMM). The empirical evidence from the 2024 sustainability reports of the Top 5 Peruvian mining companies (Merco Ranking 2025) confirms that the gap that Nuestros Saberes fills is real and documentable: none of the five leading companies implement programs of cultural co-production, participatory social research or co-produced territorial diagnoses, despite multimillion-dollar investments in social management. The program's positioning at the higher levels of Arnstein's (1969) ladder and the IAP2 spectrum—partnership, delegated power, and empowerment—structurally differentiates it from conventional models that operate at the information and consultation levels. The proposed evaluation model, aligned with GRI 400 and ICMM, provides the traceability demanded by investors and funders. This approach does not aim to replace state-run education or the mining sector's social investment. Its contribution is to enhance both through intergenerational capacity building, 82
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