The African Initiative on Mining, Environment and Society (AIMES) holds its 13th Annual Strategy Meeting in Harare

The African Initiative on Mining, Environment and Society (AIMES), a pan-African network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) engaged in extractive sector advocacy, in particular mining and development issues successfully held its 13th annual strategy meeting from June 21-24th, 2011 in Harare, Zimbabwe under the theme: The African Mining Reform Agenda and Regional Harmonisation: mobilising for developmental impacts. The meeting was hosted by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA).

The meeting was attended by fifty participants from around 20 strategic mining countries. The meeting also involved participants drawn from the academia, civil society and policy officials from institutions such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and Parliament of the Zimbabwe.  

The annual strategy and planning meeting allowed members of the Network to share experiences analyze and assess the most pressing issues of concerns in order to improve common understanding and to map out advocacy strategies for promoting policies that ensure the optimum developmental impact of mining in Africa without abuse to the environment and human rights.

The theme of the 13th annual strategy meeting flowed from the evolution of policy debates and processes for the reform of African mining regimes taking place at the continental and regional levels, a position which AIMES has been calling for over the years. Flowing from the theme, the following topics were covered during the meeting; mining regimes in Africa, economic competition and the prospects of reforms of Africa’s mining regimes, the African Mining Vision and the report of the International Study Group, domestic resource mobilisation, Rio+20 issues and the politics of climate change. In addition, the meeting discussed the different arenas for collective advocacy and common issues and interests for linkages and alliance building around the continental mining reform initiatives.

The key results and outcomes of the meeting included a statement that was issued by participants outlining key demands in the extractive sector reforms (AIMES Statement). In relation to the reform agenda it was resolved that there is need to build awareness and constituency around the Africa Mining Vision with organisations qualitatively improving it. It was further resolved that there is need to identify critical headline issues that are important for all the different constituencies that have a interest in mining with particular emphasis on affected communities and their interests. The need to begin formulating a common community framework towards human rights was also agreed upon. Further, it was agreed that African CSOs need to effectively participate at COP 17 in Durban and Rio+20.

Click here to view the workshop presentations from the Meeting.