Introduction and Context Setting
The Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining sector in Africa is an important contributor to national economies. A consideration of key indicators of economic development such job creation, contribution to forex earnings, mineral commodity production volumes and significance to rural economies and poverty alleviation emphasize the sector’s importance to the economies of mineral resource-rich African countries. A consideration of the aforementioned indicators reveals the following: about 13.2 million people are directly employed by the subsector in Africa. Other sources also have different estimations including the EITI which estimates direct employment in the sector to be over 40 million persons ; contribution to forex earnings is estimated at between $3-5 billion ; on rural economic development and poverty alleviation, the Action Plan of the Africa Mining Vision underscores the importance of the subsector in rural poverty alleviation with an objective under its Programme Cluster on artisanal and small-scale mining aims to “create a mining sector that harnesses the potential of artisanal and small-scale mining to advance integrated and sustainable rural socioeconomic development”.
Notwithstanding the pedigree of the subsector in economic development, it is perceived negatively owing to factors including environmental degradation, health and safety risks, and extent of informality of operations associated with the subsector. Beyond the risks and negative perceptions that also influence the extent of legitimization and professionalization of the subsector, it predominantly operates as an enclave entity with very little value addition.
Side Session on the ASME Hub as a panacea
The side session on the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Entreprises (ASME) Hub is intended to explore approaches to enhance and retain socio-economic value from Africa’s artisanal and small-scale mining subsector in mineral-rich African states through the creation a platform for coordination and dialogue to address the risks and challenges that affect value optimization from the subsector. The session will entail a presentation on the findings from a comprehensive assessment of the status of ASM in Africa, covering themes such as the role of ASM in mineral value chains, regulatory and policy frameworks and financing and trade of ASM commodities and value-added products.
Subsequent to the presentation will be discussions on the modalities for operationalizing the Hub such as proposals on the structure to include a web portal to host all information pertaining to the Hub, a proposed governance structure including a Steering Committee (SC) and a Technical Working Group (TWG), as well as proposals on the frequency of the meetings of the SC and TWG. The Framework will also make proposals on strategies to finance meetings of the SC and TWG as well as for the maintenance of the Web portal.
The session will have a panel discussion of key experts from governments, private sector entities (artisanal and small-scale mining, large scale mining, downstream businesses, financing entities), multilateral development banks, community representatives/civil society, and philanthropic organizations.
Objectives
The main objective of the session is to derive a stakeholder consensus and ownership of the Artisanal and Small-Scale Entreprises (ASME) Hub through solicitation of stakeholder inputs for operationalizing the Hub. Specifically, the Hub will serve the following objectives:
- Validate findings of a compressive assessment of the status of ASM in Africa
- Validate proposals on the modalities for operationalizing the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Entreprises Hub
- Build stakeholder consensus and collect stakeholder inputs around financing and revenue mobilization modalities for sustaining operations of the Hub
- Collect stakeholder inputs and build consensus on services to be provided by the Hub
Documents