Independent advice on mining SESA Burkina Faso

25 October 2023

After a round of online consultations, the NCEA provided an independent advice about updating the Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment (SESA) of the mining sector in Burkina Faso. The advice is about the terms of reference for updating the assessment.

The NCEA consulted a range of stakeholders, including ministries (mining, environment, work, gender), the private sector (chamber of agriculture), and civil society organisations. This underlined the need for a truly integrated analysis, involving not only mining actors, but also other sectors like agriculture and pastoralism, water and forests, employment and human rights, in the development of the SESA.

The NCEA welcomes the attention for important topics that are sometimes neglected, such as cumulative impacts, conflict and gender analysis. Our main recommendation is to link the SESA to a specific programme, plan or policy, in order to have positive influence on decision-making. Unfortunately, this link is missing in the current terms of reference. Additional recommendations relate to the SESA’s objectives, results and deliverables, the content of the assessment, and the process for carrying out the assessment. The NCEA recommends, for example, to elaborate on how and when which stakeholders are involved in developing the SESA. The advice report is available here.