Freetown, 28 July 2016 (ECA) – The African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC) as requested by the Government of Sierra Leone hosted a three-day Africa Mining Vision (AMV) workshop to improve the understanding of the AMV and the country’s new Core Minerals Policy.
The awareness-raising workshop from 26 – 28 July 2016, Sensitisation of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) in Sierra Leone, was attended by 75 participants representing various stakeholder groups around the country, including academic institutions, government agencies, development partners, the private sector, media, civil society organizations and United Nations agencies.
The workshop focused on facilitating informed input by multiple stakeholders to the preparation of Sierra Leone’s Core Minerals Policy (CMP) through improved knowledge and understanding of the AMV and CMP.
In his opening speech, Honourable Abdul Ignosi Koroma, Deputy Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, emphasized AMDC’s role in their process, “I would like to thank AMDC for supporting us in our efforts to domesticate the African Mining Vision. The AMV lays a comprehensive and clear pathway for African countries to optimize the benefits that can accrue from the mining sector and Sierra Leone wants to be an example of the positive results that pursuit of the vision can bring to a country.”
The workshop also aimed to establish a database of participants who are able to serve as resource persons for sensitization on the AMV in their communities, as part of the multi-stakeholder consultative meetings on the CMP across Sierra Leone.
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Note for editors on the Africa Mining Vision:
Formally adopted by African heads of state in 2009, the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) is the continent’s own response to tackling the paradox of great mineral wealth existing side by side with pervasive poverty. Simply put, the AMV outlines the roadmap to the transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development in Africa.
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Daisy Leoncio, Communications Officer for the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC), by email at dleoncio@uneca.org or visit www.africaminingvision.org.