6th Annual Citizens’ Convention on Extractives 2023: Shaping Mineral Wealth and the Energy Agenda

Posted on: 2023-10-25 08:29:10

With the current global discussions on climate change and the need for an energy transition, there have been calls to decarbonize all sectors with some actors calling for a complete abandonment of fossil fuels. The recently concluded Africa Climate Change Summit in Nairobi Kenya for instance supports the inclusion of a carbon tax on fossil fuel trade.

Attaining sustainable development through mineral wealth still remains an uphill task for Africa because the extractives sector remains marred by a host of challenges including poor implementation of existing legal and policy frameworks, inadequate supportive physical infrastructure, limited investment in the utilization of the minerals for value addition, rudimentary mining methods in the mining sector, lack of transparency and accountability and inadequate human and institutional capacity among others. As such, there is an urgent need for bold steps to be taken to address the social, economic, and political challenges facing the extractives sector.

The collective vision that optimization of Africa’s mineral resources could greatly spur Africa’s sustainable development relies on the continent’s preparedness to benefit from the extractives sector. To harness efforts in realizing this vision, Global Rights Alert and partners have for the last five (5) years organized an annual Citizens’ Convention on Extractives as a platform for reflection, information sharing, and accountability among key players in the extractives value chain.

The 2023 Convention themed “Shaping Mineral Wealth and Energy Agenda” is organized under a collaborative arrangement of ACODE, Global Rights Alert (GRA), Civil Society Coalition on Oil and Gas (CSCO), Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) – Uganda, Transparency International Uganda (TIU), Uganda Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (UGEITI), Centre for Budget and Tax Policy, Minerals Africa Development Institute, and Uganda Association of Artisanal and Small Scale Miners (UGAASM).

Unlike the previous editions of the Convention that confined the discourse to conventional minerals, the 6th edition will view minerals more holistically and broaden the discussions to the oil and gas sector as well. For purposes of this Convention, minerals also include fuel minerals such as coal and petroleum.