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High-Level West Africa Conference on Equity in Extraction: Addressing Inequalities in Natural Resource Governance, Critical Mineral Resources and Climate Change

Preamble:

The equity in extraction: addressing inequalities in natural resource governance, critical mineral resources and climate change conference is the second of the series of such conference organised by the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and supported by Ford Foundation.

This year’s conference, convened by ISODEC in partnership with IDEAs, the National Development Planning Commission of Ghana with support from Ford Foundation, featured three days of deliberations and discussions. The event brought together leading researchers, policymakers, civil society actors, activists, and labor representatives from across Africa.

We, in the Civil Society Organizations, Community Leaders, Academia and Technical experts convened at the High-Level West Africa Conference on “Equity in Extraction: addressing inequalities in natural resource governance, critical minerals and climate change” between 14-16 October, 2025 at Alisa Hotel in Accra, reaffirm the sovereign rights of states to govern their natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations, and mindful of the urgent need for a just energy transition, climate change resilience, and sustainable development across the region:

Recognize

• That the rising global demand for critical minerals (cobalt, lithium, manganese, nickel and rear earth elements) essential to low-carbon technologies creates both opportunity and risk for West African States and communities;
• That long-standing inequalities in natural resource governance have produced uneven economic benefits, weakened environmental and social protection, exacerbated conflict and poverty, and eroded community trust; and
• That climate change increases vulnerability and interact with extractive activities, making integrated right-bases and climate-smart governance essential.

Adopt the following principles to guide actions at both regional and national levels

• Equity and intergenerational fairness: ensure communities; especially historically marginalized groups and communities receive fair and sustainable benefits from extraction.
• Transparency and accountability: open information, public participation, and independent scrutiny across the extractive value chain.
• Rights- based governance: full respect for human rights, including Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for affected communities and the right to say NO to mining and meaningful safeguards for indigenous, rural women’s and youth rights
• Environmental integrity and climate resilience: integrate rigorous environmental safeguards, restoration obligations and climate risk management into all stages of extraction.
• Regional cooperation and harmonization: strengthen collaboration across borders to manage shared resources, prevent Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) and maximize collective benefits.
• Value addition and local development: promote industrial policies that retain greater value within West Africa through local processing, skills development and technology transfer.
• Addressing Interlinked Inequality Drivers: Recognition that inequality in Africa’s resource sectors stems from poverty, unequal terms of trade, price volatility, and governance failures calls for integrated policy responses and regional solidarity to negotiate fairer terms and resist exploitative models.
• The need to promote Resource Sovereignty with Inclusive Investment: The conference emphasized the need for clearer definitions and strategies around the question of resource sovereignty that balance external investment attraction with local empowerment and benefits.
• Strengthening State and Community Roles: It was broadly agreed that the state must assert stronger governance and regulatory oversight while enabling meaningful participation of local communities, youth, and women in resource decision-making processes.
• Ensuring Just Transition and Climate Justice: Participants urged governments and development partners to embed climate resilience and justice and social inclusion at the core of mineral extraction and energy transition policies and strategies.
• Reducing Marginalization: Reflecting on the rapid increase in demand for cobalt, lithium, nickel, and other critical minerals, discussions flagged environmental degradation risks and the importance of climate policies that ensure vulnerable populations are not further marginalized in the pursuit of renewable energy goals but rather investment in resilient, green economies that serve both people and planet.
• Enhancing Transparency and Accountability: The promotion of robust institutional frameworks for open governance remains critical to curb corruption, misuse of revenues, and reinforce socio-economic justice

Decisions and Calls to Action (Address to the Africa Union, ECOWAS and Member State Governments)

1. Regional Governance Framework and Legal Harmonization:

• Call upon the Africa Union and ECOWAS to coordinate the development of the West Africa Minerals and Critical Elements Governance Framework that:
• Harmonizes baseline standards for environmental and social impact assessment, licensing, monitoring, revenue transparency, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) formalization, and conflict sensitive-approaches;
• In consistent with the AU Agenda 2063, regional trade and investments objectives, and relevant international standards (including EITI, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and OECD responsible mineral supply chain guidance).
• Timeline: ECOWAS and AU to present a draft framework for member consultations within 12 months and a final framework with 24 months.

2. National Mineral Strategies and Legislative Reform:

• Urge Member States to update or adopt national mineral strategies that:
• Integrate climate mitigation and adaptation planning;
• Ensuring Just Transition and Climate Justice: Participants urged governments and development partners to embed climate resilience and justice and social inclusion at the core of mineral extraction and energy transition policies and strategies.
• Reflecting on the rapid increase in demand for cobalt, lithium, nickel, and other critical minerals, discussions flagged environmental degradation risks and the importance of climate policies that ensure vulnerable populations are not further marginalized in the pursuit of renewable energy goals but rather investment in resilient, green economies that serve both people and planet.
• Set clear value-addition targets (refining, smelting, manufacturing);
• Define equitable fiscal regimes (including transparent revenue sharing with national governments and host communities), and establish stabilization and sovereign savings mechanisms to manage volatility;
• Incorporate ASM formalization pathways with social protection and enterprise support.
• Timeline: Member States to publish updated strategies or reform roadmaps within 12 months.

3. Transparency, Traceability and Illicit Flow Prevention:

• Request that ECOWAS, working with AU and partners, accelerate a regional traceability and chain-of-custody initiative for critical minerals, leveraging tools, harmonized documentation and regional customs cooperation to curb illicit trade.
• All Member States are urged to commit to enhanced extractive sector disclosure (join or strengthen EITI implementation where applicable), and to publish contracts, revenues, and environmental monitoring data.

4. Community Rights and Benefits Sharing and Grievance Mechanisms:

• Require that all extractive projects adopt legally enforceable community benefits agreements and ensure the value and spirit of FPIC.
• Establish accessible, independent grievance and remediation mechanisms at national and regional levels, with protection for complaints.
• Channel a defined share of extractive rents to locally managed development funds (focused on health, education, livelihoods diversification and health food systems, and climate resilience).

5. Environmental Protection, Rehabilitating and Climate-Smart Mining:

• Mandate robust environmental and social impact assessments (including cumulative and transboundary impacts) prior to licensing; require performance bonds, progressive rehabilitation plans and biodiversity sensitive siting.
• Integrate requirements for energy efficiency, low -carbon operations, water stewardship and climate-risk mitigation into mineral sector licenses and contracts.

6. Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM):

• Prioritize inclusive formalization of ASM: simplified licensing, access to finance and technical assistance, health and safety standards, and market access mechanisms that link responsible ASM to upstream supply chains
• Integrate gender-responsive programming to support women who participate in ASM

7. Local Content, Skills ad Industrialization:

• Adopt and implement local content policies that are realistic, time-bound and accompanies by capacity building, vocational training, technology transfer incentives and public procurement linkages to stimulate local value chains.

8. Finance, Investment and Partnership:

• Invite the African Development Bank, regional development finance institutions, climate-funds and donor partners to scale concessional financing, risk guarantees ad blended fiancé to support: local processing facilities, environmental remediation, ASM formalization, and Community Development Projects.
• Encourage private sector actors and investors to adopt mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence consistent with international best practices.

9. Gender, Youth and Special Inclusion:

• Integrate gender equality and youth employment targets across policies and projects, including quotas for training, employment and access to entrepreneurship support for marginalized groups.

10. Implementation, Monitoring and Reporting:

• Establish a West Africa Steering Committee on Equitable Mineral Governance (composed of representation from AU, ECOWAS, Member States, communities, CSOs, Industry and Technical partners to:
• Oversea regional implementation, coordinate technical working groups (legal reform, environmental safeguards, traceability, ASM, local content, finance), and mobilize resources.
• Produce an annual progress report to the ECOWAS Commission and the African Union Commission and make reports publicly available.
• Create an independent multi-stakeholder monitoring and evaluation mechanism with CSOs, to track compliance, socioeconomic outcomes, environmental impacts and grievance resolution.
• Launch a regional open-data portal for extractives sector licensing, revenues, environmental monitoring and benefit-sharing and workforce development.

11. Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing:

• Call on AU and Ecowas to establish regional Centres of Excellence and technical assistance programmes to support, geological data management, contract negotiation, tax and royalty administration, environmental monitoring, ASM formalization, local supply chain development.
• Promote South-South cooperation and partnerships with universities, research institutions and industry for technology transfer and workforce development.

In conclusion, we call upon the Africa Union, ECOWAS and Members State Governments to adopt and operationalize these commitments with urgency, recognizing that how West Africa governs its critical mineral endowments will determine not only economic trajectories but the regional contribution to a just global energy transition and a resilient future for its communities.

We further invite development partners, international financial institutions, the private sector and CSOs to support the region’s path through finance, technology, capacity building and market-access conditioned on adherence to the principles and actions set out in this communique.

Adopted by participants at the High-Level West Africa Conference on Equity in Extraction and endorsed for transmission to the Africa Union, ECOWAS Commission and Member States Governments for immediate action and follow-up.

For Conference Participants: