Extractive industries, the SDGs and the 4th Industrial Revolution

Photo © BBC World Service/ Flickr
Photo: Flickr, BBC World Service

The annual African Mining Indaba will take place from 5-8 February 2018 in Cape Town, connecting investors with mining companies and governments. On the side-lines of this conference, SAIIA will host its annual Change Makers event.

The South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) in partnership with the NRF/DST SARChI Research Chair: Mineral Law in Africa (University of Cape Town) and Mining Dialogues 360°, cordially invites you to our Change Makers Forum on “Extractive Industries, the Sustainable Development Goals and the 4th Industrial Revolution“.

The annual Change Makers Forum is a multi-stakeholder dialogue geared towards achieving tangible policy impact in the context of African mining. Following our 2017 forum on extractives and the SDGs, this year’s Change Makers advances the discussion in light of emerging technological and economic shifts. The discussion will focus on how these shifts affect the relationship between mining and development. To facilitate discussion, introductory remarks will be delivered by:

  • Ross Harvey, Governance of Africa’s Resources Programme, SAIIA
  • Professor Hanri Mostert and Dr Cheri Young, Mineral Law in Africa, UCT
  • Mrs Tracey Cooper, Director, Mining Dialogues 360°

Please RSVP for this Change Makers as soon as possible by following the link below; space is unfortunately limited. For further programme details, please refer HERE to the 2018 Change Makers Concept Note.

About our mining work

The extractive industries remain a central component of many African countries’ growth strategies. SAIIA’s Governance of Africa’s Resources Programme (GARP) is committed to ensuring that mining contributes to inclusive and sustainable development.

We believe that how the industry is governed – at a continental, regional and country level – will largely determine whether the aspirations of inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth are realised. By inclusive we mean that access to economic opportunities flowing from mining should benefit a broad spectrum of the population. By equitable we mean that the benefit distribution should not be skewed towards favouring the elite. By sustainable we mean that both environmentally and financially, mining should not be an enclave industry that extracts and departs. It should generate benefits well beyond the life-of-mine and never damage the environment beyond repair, especially if the opportunity costs are high (in terms of ecotourism potential and biodiversity preservation, for instance). Both events that we are hosting contribute to these ends.

Related material:

GARP has released several research papers that tackle the question of optimally governing extractive projects that yield development benefit at potential long-term cost to the environment, along with other mining research that speaks to the broader context of how to harness mineral extraction for inclusive and equitable development:

7 Feb 2018