A global mining expert Ludivine Wouters has advised the Government of Malawi and non-state actors in the mining sector to come up with clear goals that can help the country maximize benefits and profits from the sector by combining investment attractiveness and good governance.
Wouters shared some views in an interview in Lilongwe on Tuesday on the sidelines of a Mining Corruption Risk Assessment Workshop. The interactive workshop was organized by Perekezi ASM Consultants under its “Empowering Stakeholders: Driving Just Resource Governance Through Open Contracting and Licensing” Project.
The project is being funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Powering a Just Energy Transition Minerals Challenge (JET Minerals Challenge).
In her remarks, Wouters observed that there is great potential in the mining sector.
However, she emphasized the need for the authorities to come up with clear goals to define the shared goals to guide the realization of this potential.
“From my experience, having worked in a variety of countries in Africa and elsewhere, I think the most important recommendation at this stage is to be very clear what the shared goals are. What are we trying to achieve with this new piece of legislation? What is the purpose? What is the goal of the mines and minerals authority, so that together, all of the stakeholders can contribute to the achievement of those goals with a clear understanding of how to avoid the traps that others have had to deal with for decades,” she said.
The training aim was to empower participants and discuss how the practices of government bodies, stakeholders, and companies can foster better governance, better benefits for Malawi and better investment terms after the engagement.
As Mines and Mineral Act of 2023 is implemented, it will be important to test it against established practices, understanding accountability dynamics and empowering stakeholders, to leverage their individual capacities to increase transparency, exercise due scrutiny and identify remedies to areas of vulnerability to corruption: sharing a first assessment will facilitate coordination and information exchange, and strengthen individual initiatives towards common anti-corruption goals, she said.
According to Wouters, the mining sector in Malawi is very much emerging, but there is also a need to rebuild trust in some districts where prior mining operations have not always met expectations.
“But going further, there’s a huge opportunity to really define a context for Malawi to both attract responsible investment and gain the most benefits from new mining operations in a context where minerals are more needed than ever, but also how minerals are produced, the benefit they create, mitigation of their adverse impact is more important than it’s ever been,” she said.
Perekezi ASM Consultants Managing Partner, Chikomeni Manda, said the interactive workshop was an important component of their ongoing efforts to enhance governance in the mining sector in Malawi.
Manda said the initiative aims to counter transnational corruption by catalyzing development and scaling innovations that strengthen transparency, accountability, and integrity in the global rush to meet unprecedented demand for green minerals, which are currently being discovered in Malawi for exploitation.
“We believe that the media and civil society play a very critical role in oversight of the processes and exposure if they see any corrupt practices in the sector. So this is why we invited you to do this training, so that you can be able to understand the Mines and Minerals Act. I’m not saying that corruption is there, but there are vulnerabilities for corruption to happen,” he said.
“I urge the media and civil society to take a leading role in checking that the mining licencing processes are done transparently, and that if there is any abuse of office, those responsible must be held accountable. And it’s you, the media and the civil society who can make sure that those people are exposed,” added Manda.