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The 4 year (October 2022-September 2026) development programme named “Strengthening Zambian Mining Governance in The Nexus of Environment, Human Rights, and Climate” (ZAMNEX) seeks to achieve enhanced sustainability in the Zambian mining sector focusing on aspects of environment, human rights and climate change. The mining sector is a major lever for economic development, while at the same time representing a risk of negative environmental and social impacts including deforestation, loss of biodiversity and loss of livelihood opportunities. If managed sustainably, it has the potential for contributing to poverty reduction, a green transition and supporting the achievement of several of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Mining is a major part of Zambia’s economy. The sector makes up approximately 30 % of the governments total revenue stream and it makes up more than 70 % of Zambia’s total export value. The sector is however also connected to several serious problems identified in the cross section of environment and human rights. Despite the high contribution to Zambia’s overall revenue, the lack of efficient natural resources management indicates that the sector could play a greater part in Zambia’s poverty alleviation efforts and economic growth. A century of extractive operations in the country has left waste dumps and tailings dams, with increasing risks of integrity breaches, covering potentially productive areas that cannot serve any other purposes than the current. In addition to the historical problems, Zambia’s extractive industries continue to generate severe impacts on environmental resources. The mining sector is also identified as a critical sector in terms of being at risk of impacts from climate change in the National Adaptation Plan of Zambia which was submitted to the UNFCCC in 2023. Understanding how the sector can adapt to climate challenges and doing so in a sustainable manner while at the same time seeking to limit its own contributions to climate change.
The ZAMNEX programme is founded on knowledge directly co-generated by programme Zambian programme partners and beneficiaries in close collaboration with Swedish implementing partners, namely The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SwEPA), the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), the Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU). In this way the programme has sought to ensure that it has been mainly the local stakeholders themselves that have set the priorities and desired outcomes for ZAMNEX. The inception process of the programme sought to ensure full buy in and validation of findings on programme focus areas jointly with local stakeholders. Partners representing all aspects of Zambian mining governance i.e. government, industry, academia and civil society have together with Swedish partners been able to define and refine programme challenges of desired long-term change/impacts of the programme as well as defining short- and medium-term programme outcomes and outputs as well as activities needed to deliver outputs.
Vision
ZAMNEX vision is to generate improved governance of the Zambian mining sector by addressing prioritized and interlinked issues concerning environment, climate, and human rights. The programme seeks to do so by using an approach of co-generating knowledge, resource management principles and best practices between various stakeholders and multiple helix approaches. The vision is to build partnerships that promote change within systems governing the mining sector and among programme stakeholders and boundary partners.
Communities and indigenous peoples affected by and/or involved in mining are better equipped to understand issues affecting them and to participate in decision-making processes. They are also better informed to improve sustainable use of natural resources and observe and act on state and industry activities thus resulting in improved quality of life, in particular for those living in a situation of poverty and marginalization.
At the national level the programme envisions that impacts from mining are reduced from the adoption, implementation, and enforcement of integrated polices able to better mitigate and adapt to impacts as well as capturing and addressing challenges, needs and opportunities presented with a multistakeholder perspective related to the environment, climate and human rights nexus connected to the mining sector. Benefits from mining in Zambia are consequently more equitably distributed across society, and impacts on climate, ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss and pollution are better managed resulting in reduced poverty and better health for the population in general, and marginalized groups in particular, that are affected by mining thus contributing to advances across multiple SDGs.
The ambition of ZAMNEX is that actors within the Zambian mining value chain will have increased knowledge and strengthened systems related to respective programme area which will contribute positively to the way that Zambian actors can interact with and participate in processes beyond national borders.