KENYA: ‘Re-Build Trust in the Mining Industry’ – Stakeholders told
By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
The President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace H.E. Peter Cardinal Turkson has said that all parties involved in the mining industry in Africa must recognise that trust has broken down and for the sake of our economies and our people, it needs to be rebuilt.
The Cardinal said this in his speech that was read on his behalf by the Apostolic Nuncio to Kenya and South Sudan Most Rev. Charles Daniel Balvo to the 2nd International Conference on Extractive Industries, which was held at Hekima Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations on 4th of October, in Nairobi, Kenya.
“It is clear that all parties need to recognise, as a matter of urgency, the inevitable outcomes of the current cycle – the gradual deflation and downsizing of the industry – and the losers: current and future workers, governments, populations, and the mining companies. A strategy to prevent the inevitable consequences of the current cycle (crisis) will need to build on a number of existing initiatives, but do so with much greater cohesion and commitment,” the message read in part.
Taking a glimpse at the Natural Resource Industry in Africa, Cardinal Turkson noted that Africa enjoys a considerable comparative advantage vested both in its store of mineral wealth and its human capital.
“As large parts of the world, especially Asia, industrialise and construct new housing and infrastructure, there will remain great demand for African minerals,” he said adding that most African Governments must still not lose sight of how dependent most of them still are on the extractives sector.”
Cardinal Turkson in his message cautioned that the extractive sector is a once-off industry meaning that gas, petroleum, minerals and metals can only be extracted or mined once. This, of course, means that most African governments must know that much more needs to be done to diversify their economies; something that is equally undeniable and urgent.
He also pointed out that while the success of mining requires a partnership of common interest and Africa’s young and burgeoning population needs both jobs and growth, environmental care and protection of biodiversity, policy instability has planted the seeds for a vicious downward cycle. He therefore said that there is a need for a fresh start in these relationships given clear common interest.
“The vicious cycle needs to be broken, trust needs to be re-established, a shared narrative developed, rooting the industry in basic principles of common good and the universal destination of the goods of the earth, and a fair deal agreed,” he said adding that to start this process afresh, which will not be easy, new avenues for dialogue need to be found, and common interests identified.
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