Building EU – Africa partnership on sustainable raw materials value chains

Expected Outcome:

Projects outcomes will enable achieving the expected impacts of the destination by increasing access to primary and secondary raw materials, in particular critical raw materials for EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors.

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

Steer the development of strategic partnerships for EU-Africa industrial value chains’integration, covering exploration, extraction, processing, refining and recycling (if refining capacity is in place);

Improve sustainability (especially environmental and social aspects) in the mining and metal recycling sectors in Africa, including its impacts on biodiversity;

Contribute to eradicating illegal and ethically doubtful supply chains and activities;

Develop knowledge on raw materials potential in Africa that will facilitate investment and business decisions;

Reduce EU vulnerabilities in raw materials sourcing;

Diversify EU supply chains from third countries for raw materials, especially for critical raw materials;

Contribute to connecting different stakeholders of raw materials value chains, including final users.

The project should build on and explore synergies with previous and ongoing EU funded projects for Africa and existing trustworthy EU and international initiatives, covering raw materials value chains.

Dissemination and exploitation of projects outputs is tailored for EU and African

organisations and industry dealing with raw materials.

The action is expected to contribute to the implementation of the following actions of the EU action plan on Critical raw materials:

Promote responsible mining practices through the EU’s international cooperation programmes, in particular those related to the sustainable development of the informal sector (Artisanal and Small Scale Mining), which has become of strategic relevance in this field;

Strengthen the local governance and business environment, together with other institutions and development partners (EITI, OECD, UNDP, WB, and Germany’s GIZ). The focus should be on supporting the informal sector, and to promote and disseminate responsible business practices.

Scope: Actions should include:

An in-depth analysis of critical raw materials potential in Africa and existing processing and refining capacities;

Mapping and assessing investment opportunities in strategic raw materials value chains in Africa, considering factors as existing potential, availability of infrastructures, good governance and regulatory issues;

Developing new business models to integrate EU and Africa raw materials value chains, considering horizontal and vertical integration;

Developing a strategy for integration for EU and Africa value chains for the energy and digital transition;

Building an EU and Africa business networking with upstream and downstream

companies;

Carrying an in-depth analysis on financial instruments and investment funds and loans available at member state, EU and international levels for the Africa region.

All the data and information generated through these actions should be shared in open formats on a free of charge basis with the European Commission, for its own use and for publication.

In addition, public authorities and civil society organisations should participate actively in project activities to ensure that the processes and outcomes of the R&I align with the needs, values, expectations of society and, when social change, new social practices, social ownership or market uptake are required, social innovation should be encouraged.