By Linus Aleke
The African Centre for Leadership Strategy and Development (Centre LSD), Wednesday said, it has commenced a 3-day strategic partnership meeting with key stakeholders in the Nigeria mining sector to chat way forward for host communities.
The Centre in a statement signed by its Programme Coordinator, Mr. Vincent Dania, said, the activity, which, is funded by Ford Foundation to support and strengthen an intersectional approach to natural resource governance project is holding in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital.
He disclosed that the meeting is meant to provide opportunity for Centre LSD to harvest feedback on the research on the efficacy of community development agreements in mining host communities in Nigeria.
He noted that the engagement will also, deepen discussion on emerging issues in the legal framework of the extractive sector, as well as elicit commitments from stakeholders with the aim of strengthening an intersectional approach to natural resource governance.
Mr. Dania, further said, the meeting will provide avenue for addressing topical issues in the mining & steel sector, including gaps in the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act 2007 in relation to host communities, Community Development Agreements, and the intersectional forms of violence and vulnerabilities experienced by women and marginalized groups in mining host communities.
The Programme Coordinator said, participants were drawn from the Ministry of Mines & Steel Development, Miners Association of Nigeria, Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Women in Mining in Nigeria, Publish What you Pay, Nigerian Bar Association – Mining Law Committee, Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Solid Mineral Development Fund, Media Initiative on Transparency in Extractive Industries, academia, Civil Society Groups, and People with Disabilities.
The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), he concluded is a non-profit, non-governmental organization established under Nigerian laws to build strategic leadership for sustainable development in Africa.
