The Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have partnered to increase civil society organisations' capacity to engage with stakeholders in the mining industry to ensure social and environmental accountability and a clear understanding of the potential risks posed by the mining industry within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) to biodiversity.
7 August 2011: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) will partner with the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) to promote social and environmental accountability in the Southern African mining sector, through the development of “knowledge-based advocacy” among civil society organizations, to enable them to work with stakeholders in the industry.
The partnership is supported by UNDP’s Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Capacity Building for Sustainable Land Management project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The partnership will focus on developing the technical capacity of CSOs, improving their coordination and affecting community mobilization around sustainable land management issues.
The three-year project was launched at an inception meeting held from 19-20 July 2011, in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the goals and outcomes of the project were discussed.
The project will include identifying biodiversity and heritage areas that are at risk from mining activities. It was decided that the initial focus would be on seven countries – Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe – with a view to including the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) eventually. The initiative will be implemented through complementary work being undertaken by key regional instutions, namely, the Southern African Resource Watch, Environment and Development Action in the Third World (ENDA) and the Equator Inititiatve. [OSISA Web Page]