ZAMBIA: SEPA, Environmental Governance in the Mining Sector, 2022-2026 - ZAMBIA: SEPA, Environmental Governance in the Mining Sector, 2022-2026 Old ZAMBIA: Naturvårdsverket, Hållbar förvaltning inom gruvnäringen, 2022-2026 Cooperation between Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, SMHI and SGU, and Zambian authorities and organisations on environmental governance and implementation of Zambias National Adaptation Plan, with focus on mining. 

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and partners (Swedish Geological Survey, SGU, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, SMHI)  have presented a proposal for an intervention focusing on integrating environment, climate and human rights to mining governance. The partners will cooperate closely with partners in Zambia, including the United Nations Development Programme in Zambia, UNDP Zambia, Diakonia, Action Aid Zambia, Transparency International Zambia and Global Water Partnership., GWP. The Ministry of Green Economy and Environment (MoGEE) will together with the Zambian Environmental Management Agency, ZEMA, be SEPAs main counterpart in the Zambian administration. SEPA and the project team will also engage with the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development, industry organisations like Zambia Chamber of Mines, and other industry representatives.SEPA, SMHI and SGU are Swedish authorities, representing the Swedish public administration model, and are all engaged in development cooperation with support from Sida. SEPA is an active member in the  Public Agency Hub and a central assessment of SEPA has been undertaken.UNDP globally and UNDP Zambia already cooperates with SEPA within the global Environmental Governance Programme (EGP) since 2014 which focus on integrating environment and human Rights into the governance of the mining sector. Diakonia in Zambia works to strengthen accountability in communities in natural resource rich areas.The proposed programme builds on  earlier cooperation and experiences, including SEPA collaboration with UNDP,  SMHI International Training Programmes (ITPs) on  climate change, SGU ITPs on mine water and mine waste management, and Diakonia's activities in Zambia. The programme will address the following areas:-licensing and permitting process of large scale mining operations as well as awareness raising-knowledge generation and strategic planning related to climate change issues connected to mining-enhancement of the national discourse on sustainable mining by gathering strategic actors to highlight and amass joint pressure on certain "hot topics" related to the Zambian mining sector -provide channels for Zambian actors within the mining value chain to access and interact with regional and global platforms with similar aims as the programmeThe draft agreement follows the agreed Sida templates for General and Specific Conditions for Grants to Swedish Governmental Authorities. Samarbete med Naturvårdsverket , SMHI och SGU med zambiska myndigheter och organisationer om hållbar förvaltning av gruvsektorn samt genomförande av Zambias klimatanpassningsplan med fokus på gruvdrift, The overall objective of the contribution is to strengthen capacity of the Zambian partners to implement sustainable mining governance which integrates environment and human rights.

Component 1: Support to development of consultation, examination, and supervision - the mining licensing process

The aim of this component is to strengthen the procedures and processes in selected steps of the mining licensing cycle. The process is to include regards to environment and human rights relating to mining by using the Swedish environmental permitting procedure as a reference. SGU will co-lead this together with SEPA.

Component 2: Stakeholder coordination forum

This component will enable interactions with different interest and gather strategic actors in dialogue. The intention is to highlight and amass joint pressure on certain identified hot topics related to the Zambian mining sector. The component will also provide coordination opportunities between government bodies currently holding responsibilities governing the mining sector.

Component 3: Support to Zambia's efforts in addressing mining and climate change effects

SMHI will co-lead this together with SEPA. This component would focus on providing a systemic understanding of links between climate change and the mining sector and also possibly aim to formulate support activities integrating mining issues and measures to the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) where this knowledge is deemed insufficient. In the continuation, the programme aims to collaborate with local partners to formulate pilot activities/ small projects intended to offer tools to support implementation of the NAP in relation to the mining sector and increase the general understanding of the mining sector of challenges and opportunities in a transition towards carbon neutrality. Pilot activities will be designed to be possible to implement within the ZAMNEX initiative and the authorities/actors existing organisations mandate and resources.  

Component 4: Support to strategic action and synergies

Peer-to-peer learning and knowledge generation between practitioners in the mining-environment-human rights nexus. This component is designed to serve as an interface and connective platform where actors and stakeholders can meet and exchange knowledge. It will enable collaboration and learning by and with actors engaged in the mining sector, with human rights and environmental issues. This component will also link global EGP and UNDP activities, particularly regarding small-scale and artisanal mining, with Diakonia on strengthened accountability in communities, with other actors engaged e.g. with transparency initiatives in the mining sector. Transparency International, Action Aid Zambia, and Global Water Partnership have been consulted during programme preparations and may be engaged during implementation.