The Government of Ethiopia has set out a clear “Pathway to Prosperity” through its newest Home-grown Economic Reform Agenda intended to deliver high quality growth and a reduction in poverty, and enabling Ethiopia to reach the status of a middle-income country by 2030.
Great strides have already been taken. Double digit growth and over six-fold increase per capita during 2004-18 led to a 15 percentage points decline in the rate of poverty in Ethiopia (poverty headcount ratio of 39% of the population in 2004 to 24% of the population in 2018).
The bigger picture: homegrown economic reform
As part of the ambitious agenda for the country, encouraging private sector investment, streamlining bureaucratic and regulatory procedures, updating policies, and building institutional capacity are all considered vital. Specific reforms for the mining sector are identified:
- Address technical and institutional barriers against large-scale mining projects
- Develop policies and institutional capacities to create a sustainable and inclusive mining sector with strengthened geological information and diversified product base with industrial input focus
- Formalize and support artisanal and small-scale mining
- Address political and legal issues with local communities and incentivizing miners to engage and invest in local communities.
Reforms in Ethiopia's mining sector are well underway
The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) is already several years into its own ambitious reform programme. The case for mining sector reform focusses on five areas:
(1) Implementing strategy and improving policy
(2) Revising the legal framework
(3) Developing institutional capacity
(4) Developing human resources
(5) Enhancing facilitation through information and technology
The MoMP is currently developing a 10-year strategic plan to guide its activities and refine its long-term vision.
To accelerate delivery of this reform agenda, the Support to the Ministry of Mines Ethiopia (SUMM) project was invited by the MoMP to assist in realising the vision for modernisation.
The Support to the Ministry of Mines Ethiopia (SUMM) project is a 5-year, CAD$15 million project launched in 2016, funded by Global Affairs Canada and implemented by the Canadian International Resources and Development Institute (CIRDI). The project’s objective is to support the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum and the Geological Survey of Ethiopia (GSE) in their efforts to accelerate the development of a sustainable mining sector in Ethiopia. It does so by sharing expertise about improving the organizational and regulatory structures of Ethiopia’s mining sector, and building the MoMP’s and GSE’s operational and strategic capacities. Read more about the MoMP’s vision here .
Progress to date
Reforms at the MoMP began in 2016, and over the last few years significant progress has been made on:
- Policy and strategy reviews and development
- Legal framework reviews and development
- Organizational structure and institutional development
- Systems development (the Cadastre, GIS, environment monitoring systems, resource centre/knowledge management, human resources development)
- Communication and transparency (website development, citizen charter, consultation forums), and
- Cooperation and collaboration (regions, universities, other donors, other ministries, national institutions, diaspora)
Highlights of progress with reforms so far include:
- Upgrading the Mining Cadastre System, with Regional States fully integrated now
- Moving the mining license application process entirely online via e-portal
- Refreshing Ethiopia’s <a href="#">Mineral Development Policy</a>
- Developing Ethiopia’s <a href="#">National Petroleum Policy</a>
- Significantly increasing the number of exploration and mining licences issued by the MoMP per year
- Restructuring of organizational levels inside the MoMP and the GSE to meet current industry needs and enhance service delivery
- Delivering an <a href="http://momp.yajsolution.com/index.php/artisanal-and-small-scale-mining/asm-in-ethiopia/">Artisanal, Special and Small-Scale Mining</a> National Strategy roadmap which will see the formalisation of the sector for better management
- Streamlining federal and regional licences and licencing systems to improve consistency, via in-depth consultations with the regional mining bureaus
- Establishing the Mineral Excellence Centre inside the MoMP, and equipping the Centre with IT equipment and furniture to maximise its utility as a e-learning platform
- Completing a substantive review of all legal instruments regulating the mining sector in Ethiopia. In addition, the mapping, review and consolidating all federal and regional mining administrative and licensing procedures was delivered
- Recommending improvements to existing regulations and directives governing the licensing process
- Establishing the Gender Equality Working Group; which oversees the integration of gender concerns in policies, legislation, strategies, plans and budgets, as well as monitoring and evaluation - including development of gender competence - of MoMP staff
- Introducing an investor engagement strategy. In the past 4 years, Ethiopian delegations have attended the Prospectors and Developers Association Conference in Toronto (Canada) and the annual ‘Invest in African Mining Indaba’ conference in Cape Town (South Africa). Promotional materials aimed at investors have also been developed, including the new MoMP website
- Holding the Ethiopian International Mineral Conference and Exhibition in Addis Ababa in November 2019 , to shine a spotlight on the sector for investors
- Developing a Mining Scorecard for Ethiopia, to identify and track indicators for the governance of the extractive sector.
Both the Ministry and the GSE Directorates are now accountable for reporting directly to the Prime Minister’s Office on a regular basis to share progress in the sector’s reform. The reform programme is ongoing.