Mining ministers and senior officials from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific will gather in Brussels at the ACP House on 14 February 2018, for a high level ministerial meeting on mineral resources development, co-organised with the African Mineral Development Centers (AMDC). The ministerial segment will be preceded by two days of discussions by senior officials on 12 and 13 February 2018.
The meeting will address how to leverage mining and natural resources to support sustainable job creation, and reduce the flow of refugees resulting from lack of economic opportunities, extreme poverty and conflict. It follows on the meeting organised in Brussels in December 2016, where it was agreed that the African Mineral Development Centers (AMDC) would table concrete project proposals to the ACP, to support countries’ efforts in developing their mineral resources for sustainable economic transformation.
Experts have underlined that while mining brings employment, government revenues, and opportunities for economic growth and diversification, these resources have not translated into significant development in Africa. However, if properly managed, mining could provide opportunities along the value chain including in green and climate resilient jobs, as well as opportunities resulting from spatial development and improved inter-sectoral linkages with other keys economic sectors such as agriculture, towards the development of sustainable mining cities.
This year, the AMDC proposes to strengthen the strategic partnership with the ACP Secretariat in specific areas. Under the theme “Building Synergies between the Africa Mining Vision and the ACP Framework of Action for the Development of Mineral Resources sector,” the high level ministerial event will discuss concrete areas of cooperation, aimed at:
*Providing targeted and tailor-made policy support to ACP countries
*Identifying concrete private sector initiatives for sustainable job creation in the framework of the AMV and the ACP Framework of action, as well as for fostering intersectoral linkages
*Ensure the mutualisation of private sector’s efforts in the implementation of these initiatives
*Providing technical assistance and institutional capacity building to ensure the implementation of the designated activities
The outcomes of the meeting with feed into ACP, ACP-EU and AMDC’s respective work streams on mineral development, in line with the ACP Framework on Mineral Resource Development, the Africa Mining Vision, the ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme and the SDGs. An initiative led by the private sector will also form part of the outcomes.
About the Africa Mining Vision
On the African continent, the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) was adopted in 2009 as a forward-looking continental framework that should guide African Member States in designing and implementing mineral strategies that will help the sector end its cyclical tendencies and integrate into the broader economy and support the continent’s industrialization and diversification. This was later reinforced with the Africa Union (AU) continental agenda 2063, The AMV proposes an integrated framework, which cuts across various interconnected dimensions, all ACP Ministers adopted a Framework of Action for the Development of Mineral Resources Sector for ACP countries in 2011. The overall objectives of the Framework, which concur with the AMV, are to foster the development of the mineral resources industry in support to the sustainable development of ACP countries and to contribute to poverty reduction and social development in the mining sector.
Considering that ACP members also span across the 3 major oceans, the ACP as a group, has the largest territory on earth and the sea, and therefore can leverage on a large amount of the world’s resources.
The ACP framework and the AMV are complementary efforts to strengthen the management capacity of ACP countries in the mineral sector, to integrate sustainable development measures into the mining sector and to enhance the ability of states to derive maximum economic and social benefits from the sector, while mitigating the negative impacts of the mining industry.
The AMV is a framework which matches with the ACP Secretariat’s Strategic Plan (2014-2020) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is key to concretize the African Union Agenda 2063, is already an inspiration for the governments of the Caribbean and the Pacific, and responds to the recommendation of the African Union Commission’s (AUC) First Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Trade, Industry and Minerals (STC-TIM), held in May 2016.
Given the significant convergence in the AMV and ACP framework and the synergies that can be derived and shared amongst the ACP and the AMDC as institutional partners, it would be desirable to join efforts in developing concrete feasible and transformative initiatives appealing to the private sector, to achieve their respective objectives and realise their mandates.