Projects

WRFA partner of new Horizon Europe project developing EU-Africa partnerships for responsible sourcing of critical raw materials

WRFA partner of new Horizon Europe project developing EU-Africa partnerships for responsible sourcing of critical raw materials

The World Resources Forum Association becomes consortium partner of the project ‘Building EU-Africa partnerships on sustainable raw materials supply chain‘, in short AfricaMaVal, funded by the European Commission, as part of the Horizon Europe Programme. The project, which kicked-off on June 1st 2022 and will last for 42 months, is coordinated by BRGM (the French Geological Survey) and involves 18 partners from 11 countries.

 

AfricaMaVal: project context and objectives

Securing the access to mineral resources represents a crucial strategic issue for Europe’s ambitions to deliver the Green Deal and perform the energy and digital twin transition. As future demand of primary critical raw materials will continue to be largely met by imports, the EU needs to diversify its supply chain and engage in strategic partnerships with resource-rich third countries covering extraction, processing and refining.

In this context, AfricaMaVal aims at developing EU-Africa partnerships ensuring responsible sourcing of minerals for the European industry while providing for a sustainable local co-development in the best environmental, social and governance (ESG) conditions and creating a long-term prolific business environment for European and African companies.

The project will focus on the mineral potential, and financial, environmental, social, institutional and economic aspects along the whole value chain, with the following overall objectives:

  • Building EU and Africa business networking across all critical raw materials value chains;
  • Developing a strategy for the integration of identified and emerging EU and African raw materials value chains for the energy and digital transitions;
  • Assessing responsible investment opportunities.

During the project, in-depth case studies will be developed for 10 countries, selected due to their mining and refining potential, and existing links with several EU countries: DRC, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Gabon, Namibia, Tanzania, Madagascar, Morocco and South Africa.

How WRFA will contribute 

Leveraging previous projects in the focus area of resource extraction – such as RE-SOURCING and FORAM – and a decennial experience of project implementation in Africa, participation in AfricaMaVal will allow WRFA to further contribute to the key topic of responsible sourcing of mineral raw materials.

The WRFA team will be involved in a variety of work packages, with activities which will include:

  • Development and implementation of training programmes for local communities in Africa, with a focus on the informal mining sector (ASSM), in order to align mining practices to ESG goals;
  • Dissemination of good practices to strengthen the local governance and business environment, together with other institutions and development partners;
  • Assessment of investment opportunities with ESG country data, enabling the development of strategic partnerships for EU-Africa industrial value chai integration;
  • Identification and assessment of existing African value chain projects of ECRMs, including an analysis of potential bottlenecks.

Project Partners

 

Learn more: www.africamaval.eu