Under African skies – mining TNCs in Africa and the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Interaction between transnational mining companies (mining TNCs), governments, mining industry bodies and local communities is critical to advancing several of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Mining TNCs may be leaders or conspicuous laggards in this regard. Some larger mining companies have made significant corporate social responsibility (CSR) progress and implemented effective sustainable development, thereby boosting their legitimacy. Individually, some African countries have established global, standard, mining codes of conduct; collectively, African governments are organizing to establish regional licensing standards, CSR guidelines and codes of conduct such as the Africa Mining Vision. Comparing two mining TNCs cases, we illustrate paths of progress and problems and predict their directions in Africa. Although we expect the United Nations Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative to remain the main vehicles and provide benchmarks that move the mining industry towards achieving the SDGs, these vehicles need to be expanded to include targets that currently are only implicit, such as gender equality and sustainable community development.