NSA Reflection on Critical Minerals Beneficiation and Value Chains

ABOUT

The African Development Bank (AfDB), together with the African Union Commission and African governments, convened the Ministerial Forum on Critical Minerals Value Chains and Beneficiation on 10 July 2026 in Abidjan. The meeting marked an important political milestone in positioning Africa’s critical minerals as strategic assets for industrialisation, regional integration and economic transformation. This is an important departure from the current extraction-for-export model. Beneficiation refers to increasing the value of minerals through local processing, refining, manufacturing and downstream industrial development, thereby creating higher-value industries, decent jobs and technological capabilities within Africa.

The Forum reinforced several longstanding African policy aspirations, including the Africa Mining Vision, Agenda 2063, AfCFTA, the African Green Minerals Strategy, and the newly adopted New African Financial Architecture for Development (NAFAD), while emphasising local value addition, regional value chains, and mobilisation of large-scale investment.

These priorities strongly resonate with the previous work of ACSEA, PACJA and its partners on critical minerals, including the factsheet Adding Local Value to African Countries’ Critical Raw Materials Trade, which argues that Africa must shift from exporting raw materials to creating domestic industries, jobs and technology capabilities through local beneficiation. The factsheet also recognises that previous continental initiatives have often suffered from slow implementation, limited regional coordination and insufficient civil society participation. As governments and development finance institutions move from political commitments towards implementation, African civil society has a critical opportunity to shape governance frameworks, investment priorities and accountability mechanisms before major investments are undertaken

While the Ministerial Forum demonstrated strong political momentum, public information suggests that relatively little attention was given to issues central to climate justice and inclusive development, including community participation, accountability, labour standards, decent work, occupational health and safety, social dialogue, environmental safeguards, gender equity and benefit-sharing.
We therefore seek to convene NSAs to reflect on the Forum’s outcomes, identify opportunities and gaps, and develop a coordinated advocacy strategy to influence the next phase of continental policy development.

Overall Objective

To develop a coordinated African civil society position and engagement strategy to influence the implementation of equitable, inclusive, and sustainable critical minerals governance and beneficiation across Africa.