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African non-state actors call for people-centred critical minerals beneficiation – EnviroNews
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African civil society, trade unions, women’s rights organisations and policy experts have called for Africa’s critical mineral wealth to drive the continent’s own industrialisation, create decent jobs and deliver meaningful benefits to communities.
The call emerged during the NSA Reflection Webinar on the AfDB Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals, convened by the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy and Access (ACSEA) with its partners on Friday, July 24, 2026.
Held under the theme, “From Political Commitments to African Prosperity: Civil Society Perspectives on Critical Minerals Beneficiation and Value Chains,” the webinar attracted 376 approved registrations. Seventy participants were reported online during the panel discussion.
The event followed the African Development Bank and African Union Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals Value Chains and Beneficiation, held in Abidjan on July 10, 2026. It provided a platform for non-state actors to examine how the political commitments emerging from the Forum can be translated into inclusive and sustainable action.
Africa Must Create Value at Home
Opening the webinar, ACSEA Executive Director, Dr. Augustine B. Njamnshi, stressed that Africa’s critical minerals should support the continent’s development before serving foreign industries.
Africa possesses significant reserves of cobalt, lithium, copper, graphite, manganese, nickel and other minerals needed for the global energy and digital transitions. However, much of this wealth continues to leave the continent in raw or minimally processed form.
Dr. Njamnshi called for local value addition, strict environmental protection, transparent mineral governance and the meaningful participation of workers and communities. He also urged civil society to move beyond reflection and develop concrete advocacy actions capable of influencing continental policy.
Dineo Majavu, Programme Manager at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Trade Union Competence Centre for Sub-Saharan Africa, placed workers at the centre of the discussion. She argued that the critical question is not simply who owns Africa’s minerals, but who benefits from them.
She called for trade unions to participate in decisions relating to mining policy, local procurement, occupational health and safety, environmental protection and the Just Transition.
Beneficiation Must Go Beyond Processing Plants
Moderating the discussion, ACSEA Director of Programmes, Eugene Nforngwa, cautioned that locating processing plants in Africa would not automatically end extractive economic models.
Beneficiation would remain incomplete if ownership, technology and profits remained outside Africa while communities continued to experience pollution, displacement, poverty and limited access to energy and basic services.
The webinar therefore called for a broader understanding of beneficiation that considers who owns and controls the value created, who receives the jobs, the quality of those jobs, who participates in decision-making and who bears the environmental and social costs.
Elijah Chiwota of IndustriALL Global Union emphasised that the quality and security of employment should matter more than headline job figures. He called for living wages, freedom of association, collective bargaining, social protection, safe working conditions and the formalisation of artisanal and small-scale mining.
Mkhululi Nkosilamandla Ncube of the African Minerals Development Centre argued that Africa already has important policy frameworks, including the Africa Mining Vision and the African Green Minerals Strategy. The challenge is to make these frameworks work for communities, African enterprises and domestic investors.
Dr Marit Kitaw of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa expressed optimism that Africa may be approaching a genuine political turning point. She noted that the debate is shifting from whether Africa should add value to its minerals towards how regional value chains should be organised, financed and implemented.
She called for regional specialisation, stronger research and innovation, deliberate technology transfer and cooperation between mining, finance, trade, industry and infrastructure institutions.
Women and Communities Must Be Rights-Holders
Memory Zonde-Kachambwa, Executive Director of FEMNET, warned that industrialisation and the energy transition are not gender neutral.
She highlighted the unpaid care burden carried by women, their exclusion from ownership and decision-making, and the displacement, pollution and gender-based violence experienced in some mining communities.
She called for gender-responsive contracts, women’s ownership of higher-value enterprises and investment in childcare, clean water, education, safe transport and other public infrastructure.
Appolinaire Zagabe Kamanyula of the DRC Climate Change Network shared experiences from communities affected by mineral exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
He organised the concerns of mining communities around four important questions: who decides, who benefits, who bears the risks and who enforces the rules?
He called for community participation from the licensing stage, public access to mining contracts, enforceable benefit-sharing, environmental monitoring, decent work, technology transfer, land restoration and sanctions against companies that violate national laws and community rights.
Poll Results Confirm Participant Priorities
The webinar poll reinforced many of the issues raised during the discussion.
Of the 70 respondents who answered the question on Africa’s highest priority:
- 39 per cent selected local processing.
- 31 per cent selected decent jobs and skills.
- 17 per cent selected manufacturing.
- 13 per cent selected regional value chains.
Governance and weak institutions were identified as the biggest implementation challenge by 48 per cent of respondents, followed by finance at 27 per cent.
Community rights emerged as the leading advocacy priority for non-state actors at 37 per cent. Green industrialisation and environmental protection each received 33 per cent, while transparency received 32 per cent.
The findings demonstrate that participants want industrial development to advance alongside community rights, accountable governance, environmental protection and decent work.
Moving from Reflection to Action
The closing session identified three directions for continued engagement.
First, the convening partners proposed preparing immediate civil society recommendations for submission to the African Development Bank while the outcome document of the Ministerial Forum is still being developed.
Second, the webinar proposed beginning a process that would produce a discussion or issues paper, followed by wider consultation and the development of a common African civil society position paper on critical minerals.
Third, participants considered the establishment of an African non-state actors working group on critical minerals. The proposed group would coordinate research, convene further discussions, track policy commitments and ensure that the voices of workers, women and frontline communities remain visible in continental decision-making.
The webinar demonstrated that Africa’s critical mineral wealth can support industrialisation and prosperity. However, this will only happen if value addition is accompanied by African ownership, regional cooperation, accountable financing, decent work, gender justice, community participation and strong environmental safeguards.
Africa must not simply provide the minerals that power the rest of the world. Its mineral wealth must also power Africa’s own development.
