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EGP Newsletter

Newsletter from the Environmental Governance Programme (EGP) for Sustainable Natural Resource Management

By Environmental Governance Programme (EGP)

September 1^st, 2021

EGP is a joint initiative of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The EGP supports countries to integrate environment and human rights into the governance of the mining sector.

Contents

Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM):

Liberia Interview: Improving Environmental Protection by Working with ASM Miners & Communities Impacted by Mining
ASM Learning Bubble starting on September 15, 2021!

Gender Equality in Mining:

Register for the Gender & Mining Governance MOOC starting on September 13, 2021!
EGP Joins New Partnership: Women & the Mine of the Future (WMF)

Learning & Knowledge Management (LEKM):

EGP Launches New LEKM Ecosystem and Templates
EGP Blog: Meeting the Challenges of COVID-19
Learning Hub Report: LEKM Focal Points Meeting (May 25, 2021)
Upcoming EGP Webinar Series: Escazú Agreement, Human Rights & Healthy Ecosystems; and Deforestation & Mining

Participatory Environmental Monitoring (PEM):

EGP Global PEM Guide

Partners & Additional Resources:

UNV Success Story: Empowering Youth through the Young Environmental Journalists Programme
New CCSI Blog: Citizen Participation, Politics and Power in the Extractive Sector
Panel on ESG in the Mining Sector

Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM):

Liberia Interview: Improving Environmental Protection by Working with ASM Miners & Communities Impacted by Mining

The EGP has been working with regulatory authorities and agencies in Liberia to develop a user-friendly ASM handbook. The publication will provide guidance to miners and host communities on regulations, norms and practical steps to improve health, safety, and environmental and human rights protection in ASM. In an interview with the EGP, Abraham Tumbey, EGP focal point in UNDP Liberia, outlines how the upcoming handbook launch can help improve the governance of the ASM sector.

Read the Interview

ASM Learning Bubble starting on September 15, 2021!

Learning Bubbles are meetings where EGP Country Teams, Partners and Focal Points meet peer-to-peer and across countries and regions to engage in learning and sharing. EGP's first Learning Hub focusing on ASM will be held on Wednesday, September 15, 2021. The event will bring together EGP's country teams, partners and focal points in Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mongolia, Namibia, Peru, and Zambia. Information on how to register for the event has been sent out to partners through UNDP focal points.

The online participatory event – coordinated by EGP’s Global Team at UNDP and SEPA - will help shape ASM guidance documents being prepared with EGP support. These guidelines will deliver practical guidance to ASM miners and assist policy makers in supervising the ASM sector.

Register here (EGP Country Teams, Partners & Focal Points)

Photo Credits: iStock.com/BanksPhotos

Gender Equality in Mining:

Register for the Gender & Mining Governance MOOC starting on September 13, 2021!

Do you want to become more skilled at evaluating the impact of mining projects on communities, with a particular emphasis on women? Are you interested in amplifying women’s voices in mining governance? Do not miss the 2021 edition of the Gender & Mining Massive Online Open Course (MOOC), offered by the EGP, the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF), and UNDP's Learning for Nature programme.

This four-week interactive course, available in English, Spanish and French, will start on September 13, 2021, and feature the following themes:

Week 1: Introduction to Gender and Mining Governance
Week 2: Women's Participation in Decision-Making in the Mining Sector
Week 3: Gender-Based Violence in the Mining Sector
Week 4: Investment in Gender in Mining Governance

Register here

“Investing in gender equality and women’s leadership in the mining sector can strengthen community resilience and stability” - MOOC’s Introduction Module

Learn more:

Download & share the MOOC social media messages
Read the Final Report from the 2020 MOOC Edition
If you have any questions about the course, please contact the course team at info@learningfornature.org

EGP Joins New Partnership: Women & the Mine of the Future (WMF)

The EGP is joining forces with the IGF, the International Women in Mining (IWiM) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) to launch a new project to improve women's participation in mining workforce and supply chains.

The new partnership, Women & the Mine of the Future (WMF), will advance women's participation in the context of new technologies transforming global mineral supply chains and the rising demand for minerals for low-carbon energy transition, such as lithium for electric vehicle batteries. The project will support evidence-based decision making by establishing a baseline to uncover existing gender-disaggregated profiles of workers in large-scale mining and its supply chains. The WMF seeks to:

Improve gender-disaggregated data collection and analysis on mining occupations, skills, and job profiles.
Provide guidelines and policy recommendations on how to empower and support women in their career paths, while fighting against gender stereotypes, bias and discrimination.
Support women employees in mining communities to have access to better job opportunities in the mining sector and its supply chains.

“The WMF will foster the participation of women in the mine of the future, which is being shaped by rapid technological changes and the rising demand for the critical minerals for a low-carbon energy transition” - WMF Project Document

Learn more:

Download Presentation on WMF

Women & the Mine of the Future (WMF)

Learning & Knowledge Management (LEKM)

EGP Launches New LEKM Ecosystem and Templates

The EGP Learning & Knowledge Management (LEKM) ecosystem seeks to build capacity within our community of practitioners to reflect, capture, and share their learning. It provides structured tools, learning opportunities and exchanges across the local, country, and global levels.

EGP Country Teams have assigned focal points responsible for facilitating EGP learning and knowledge management. The second EGP focal point meeting will take place on October 1, 2021, focusing on knowledge exchange and the sharing of good practices.

Learn more:

EGP's Learning and Knowledge Management (LEKM) ecosystem

EGP Blog: Meeting the Challenges of COVID-19 - Raising Local Community Voices in Sustainable Mining Governance

The social, political, economic, and environmental consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic pose severe challenges for sustainable mining governance. The EGP has responded to these challenges by helping to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and making the voices of local communities and stakeholders heard in Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mongolia, Namibia, and Zambia.

Read EGP’s Latest Blog Post.

Photo Credits: iStock.com/FGTrade

Learning Hub Report: LEKM Focal Points Meeting (May 25, 2021)

EGP's Learning & Knowledge Management ecosystem was presented in an interactive online meeting with EGP Focal Points and the Programme Global Team at UNDP and SEPA, on May 25, 2021. The LEKM ecosystem seeks to build capacity within the EGP community of practitioners to:

Monitor project progress across different levels and in the perspective of all stakeholders, including their reflection in planning and follow up;
Generate ideas to constantly improve project implementation, adjusting the project direction based on learning; and
Create feedback between global and local levels by providing concrete tools, exchanges and events that stimulate cross-level and cross-country learning.

Learn more:

EGP Newsletter

Upcoming Webinar Series:

Escazú Agreement, Human Rights & Healthy Ecosystems

The EGP is convening a webinar series, in partnership with the Stockholm University and UNDP's Regional Hub for Latin America, on the implementation of the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean (Escazú Agreement). The agreement entered into force on Earth Day this year after being ratified by half of its 24 signatory countries.

The webinars will be held in October 20201. They seek to catalyze action to implement the agreement in synergy with the SDGs and relevant biodiversity-related Multilateral Environmental Agreements. The webinar series - hosted by UNDP's Learning for Nature programme - will distill lessons learned and good practices from Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The webinars are designed for government officials and environmental organizations, including environmental and human rights defenders, women- and youth-led collectives, and indigenous peoples and their associations.

"This landmark agreement has the potential to unlock structural change and address key challenges of our times" - António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

Learn more:

EGP Blog: The Escazú Agreement & The Right to a Healthy Environment
Registration will be open soon on the UNDP Learning for Nature platform. For more information, please contact the course team at info@learningfornature.org.

Deforestation & Mining: Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues on Mining-Related Deforestation

Starting in October 2021, the EGP is organizing a series of online multi-stakeholder dialogues about mining-related deforestation in partnership with the New York Declaration on Forests' Global Platform Assessment Secretariat (NYDF), the World Conservation Society (WCS), and the Forests for Life Partnership.

The webinar series will identify actions to protect intact forests in areas impacted by mining, in support of NYDF's Goal 3, to significantly reduce deforestation derived from extractive industries. The NYDF is a non-binding international agreement that aims to halt natural forest loss by 2030, contributing to global climate and biodiversity goals and the SDGs.

“Mining represents the fourth-largest driver of deforestation, causing seven percent of deforestation in tropical and subtropical countries. Global demand for metals, minerals, and energy is increasing, putting forests and forest communities under pressure from extractive industry development” – Siân Bradley, Chatham House

The dialogues will build on the 2018 event on Forest-smart Mining to Advance the NYDF and the SDGs, and the 2019 event on Transforming Extractive Industries and Infrastructure to Achieve NYDF Goal 3.

Learn more:

WCS: Nearly 20 Percent of Globally Important Intact Forest Landscapes Overlap with Concessions for Extractive Industries

Photo credits: iStock.com/Orbon Alija

Participatory Environmental Monitoring (PEM):

EGP Global PEM Guide

Participatory Environmental Monitoring (PEM) has the potential to aid governments, communities and companies towards more inclusive, participatory and responsive governance of the mining sector.

The EGP is working with countries and international partners to prepare a global guide on participatory, community-based monitoring of mining activities., The guide will extract lessons from initiatives to strengthen PEM in Argentina, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mongolia and Peru. It will feature a self-assessment tool to assess at what stage of development their organizations are regarding PEM activities. The global guide will be launched in early 2022.

Learn more:

Report on Participatory Environmental Monitoring Committees in Mining Contexts: Lessons from Nine Case Studies in Four Latin American Countries

Quebrada de Humahuaca, UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Province of Jujuy, Argentina. © iStock.com/Skouatroulio

Partners & Additional Resources:

UNV Success Story: Empowering the Youth through the Young Environmental Journalists Programme

United Nations Volunteers (UNV) has published a story about the Young Environmental Journalists (YEJ) campaign, featuring reflections on lessons learned from 2019 and 2020 participants. Read the article here.

“Joining the Young Environmental Journalists is indeed an opportunity to contribute in shaping environmental sustainability and tackling the salient issues around environment and human rights in the mining sector” - Brian Owino, Kenyan YEJ Participant

New CCSI Blog: Citizen Participation, Politics and Power in the Extractive Sector

The Columbia University Centre for Sustainable Investment (CCSI) has published an article in its Politics of Transparency and Accountability Blog Series by its Executive Director Elisa Peterand and Olena Pavlenko, Global Council Chair at Publish What You Pay (PWYP). The blog post discusses key challenges different actors face in pushing for more accountability in the extractive industries. Read the article here.

“In order for transparency to lead to meaningful behavioral and normative change, societies must be open and supportive of citizen participation, dissent and public dialogue” - Elisa Peter and Olena Pavlenko, PWYP

Panel on ESG in the Mining Sector

The Edumine knowledge platform convened an industry-wide panel on best practices in developing, delivering, and measuring Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)-focused training programmes in the mining sector on April 20, 2021. The panel discussion featured Jeff Geipel from Mining Shared Value and Sarah Gordon from Satarla, a risk management and consulting firm, who is a Visiting Lecturer at Imperial College in London. Watch the video recording of the event here.

ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE PROGRAMME (EGP)

EMAIL: CONTACT.EGP@UNDP.ORG

WEB: WWW.ENVIRONMENTALGOVERNANCEPROGRAMME.ORG

Footnotes

Cover photo: Geamana village flooded with contaminated waste water from mining, Romania, taken in May 2019. Credits: iStock.com/Lukas Bischoff

FootNotes

Cover photo: Geamana village flooded with contaminated waste water from mining, Romania, taken in May 2019. Credits: iStock.com/Lukas Bischoff

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