Accra, June 28, GNA - Civil Society Organisations (CSO) under the umbrella of the African Initiative on Mining, Environment and Society (AIMES) have called for strong advocacy on the mining reform agenda to enable the citizenry to benefit from their resources.

There is also the need to re-examine the types of incentives enjoyed by foreign mining companies.

These were part of broad recommendations reached at the 13th Annual Strategy Meeting of AIMES on the theme, 93The African Mining Reform Agenda and Regional Harmonisation: Mobilising for Developmental Impacts".

The meeting was attended by representatives of CSO across Africa to review critical interventions that would help countries, regions and the continent adopt common mining regimes that would effectively benefit the citizenry.

Briefing journalists on the outcome of the meeting in Accra on Tuesday, Mr Abdulai Daramani, Programme Officer in charge of the Environment, for the NGO Third World Network, said major challenges posed by the mining industry cut across countries on the continent, hence the need for the harmonisation of mining policies on the continent.

He said the negative developments included huge benefits earned by foreign mining companies at the expense of the environment, host countries and the local communities.

Others were concerns about environmental degradation and destruction of livelihoods of affected communities, as well as the violations of their rights and the lack of linkages between mining enclaves and the national economies.

These depressing outcomes, he said, had also attracted demands from the citizenry for a re-examination of the incentives regimes enjoyed by foreign mining companies.

Mr Daramani said there were fears that the on-going reform initiatives could be threatened by emerging parallel policy initiatives such as the EU Raw Materials Initiative and the Natural Resource Charter.

While the continental and regional reform initiatives aimed to improve regulation, the Raw Material Initiative emphasised unregulated and unrestricted access to raw materials.

"The underlying tenet of these emerging parallel initiatives is the preservation of the unacceptable status-quo with regard to the exploitation of the minerals of Africa," he said.

The meeting also demanded a shift of emphasis from aid-dependence to domestic resource mobilisation by such actions as enhancing the fiscal policies as well as exploring alternative sources of financing development.

In addition, it called for an equitable solution to climate change to seize global warming and facilitate Africa's development.

Mr Daramani urged African Governments to improve understanding, quality of the reform agenda and forge ahead with the reform as an alternative paradigm to mining on the continent.