DR Congo (2010): Institutional strengthening of intermediary organisations in the mining sector

Name of client: Mining sector’s intermediary organisations

The overall objective of the project was to allow for a better organisation and rationalisation of the role of private sector in mining resources value creation, and enhance its contribution to the economic and social development of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The specific objectives of the project were to (i) identify the capacity-building needs of intermediary organisations in the mining sector, and (ii) to promote the grouping of the sector’s operators into intermediary organisations (such as employers’ associations). The project was implemented according to the following activities:

• Capacity-building analysis needs, analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the mining private sector, the capacity of its organisations to lobby on behalf of its members, to provide services to its members, and to assist current and potential operators and companies increase their productivity;
• Formulation of a strategy and an action plan for the reorganisation of the sector’s small and medium operators through credible associations, the analysis of the relations between large companies and the handicraft sector, and the promotion of favourable conditions for the creation of more private operators’ groupings;
• Validation and ownership by the private sector of the action plan for the capacity-building of the mining sector’s intermediary organisations as well as the policy options for the enhancement of the formal private sector’s activities in order to promote the grouping of stripping and exploration companies;
• Organisation of a consultation workshop involving public and private sector.

Type of services provided:

• Diagnostic of the mining sector through a SWOT analysis (strengths/ weaknesses/ opportunities/ threats), data collection, surveys and interviews of the sector’s key stakeholders;
• Identification, through the analysis and diagnostic of the sector, of the needs and expectations of the operators and their organisations;
• Design of an Action Plan detailing the activities to be implemented in order to develop and rationalise the sector, with a communication plan aimed at exhorting the operators to regroup and to join their professional organisation;
• Organisation of a public-private dialogue validation workshop in order to discuss and validate the results together with the key stakeholders.