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Global mining expert Ludivine Wouters advises the Malawi government and non-state actors in the mining sector to set clear goals to help the country gain maximum benefits and profits from the mining sector by combining investment attractiveness and good governance.
Waters shared some of these views in an interview on the sidelines of a mining corruption risk assessment workshop in Lilongwe on Tuesday. The interactive workshop was organized by Perekezi ASM Consultants as part of its project “Empowering Stakeholders: Driving Fair Resource Governance through Open Contracts and Licensing.”
The project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Advancing a Just Energy Transition Minerals Challenge (JET Minerals Challenge).
In his speech, Waters noted that the mining industry has huge potential.
However, she stressed that authorities need to come up with clear goals and define common objectives to guide the realization of this potential.
“Based on my experience working in Africa and many other countries, I think the most important advice at this stage is to be clear about what the common goals are. What are we trying to achieve with this new legislation? What is the purpose? What are the objectives of the Minerals and Minerals Management Authority so that all stakeholders can contribute together to achieving those goals and have a clear understanding of how to avoid the pitfalls that others have had to deal with for decades,” she said.
The aim of the training was to build capacity of participants and discuss how practices of government agencies, stakeholders and businesses can promote better governance, better benefits to Malawi and better investment conditions after engagement.
As the Mines and Minerals Act 2023 is implemented, it is important to test it against established practices, understand the dynamics of accountability and empower stakeholders to use their individual capacities to increase transparency, conduct appropriate reviews and identify remedial measures for areas that are vulnerable to corruption: sharing initial assessments will facilitate coordination and information exchange, and strengthen individual initiatives towards common anti-corruption goals, she said.
Waters said Malawi’s mining industry was in its nascent stages but also needed to rebuild trust in some areas where previous mining operations had not always lived up to expectations.
“But going further, there is a huge opportunity for Malawi to really define an environment that both attracts responsible investment and maximizes the benefits from new mining operations in a context where demand for minerals is greater than ever, but how minerals are produced, the benefits they create, and mitigating their adverse impacts is also more important than ever,” she said.
Chikomeni Manda, Managing Partner at Perekezi ASM Consultants, said the interactive workshop was an important part of their ongoing efforts to strengthen governance in Malawi’s mining sector.
Manda said the initiative aims to combat transnational corruption by promoting development and scaling up innovation to increase transparency, accountability and integrity to meet the unprecedented global demand for green minerals, which are currently being discovered for mining in Malawi.
“We believe that the media and civil society play a vital role in monitoring the process and exposing corrupt practices in the industry. That is why we are inviting you to this training so that you can understand the Mines and Minerals Act. I am not saying that there is corruption but there are loopholes where corruption occurs,” he said.
“I urge the media and civil society to play a leading role in ensuring that the mining licensing process is transparent and if there is any abuse, those responsible must be held accountable. You, the media and civil society can ensure that these people are exposed,” Manda added.
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