Minerals report due next Tuesday

March 16, 2018 in Policy by Editor

March 16, 2018—The Ministry of Energy and Minerals Development (MEMD) in partnership with the European Union, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 launch Uganda’s first Baseline Assessment and Value Chain Analysis Reports for the Development Minerals Sector.

The reports profile the Development Minerals Sector in Uganda and provides crucial information on the size of the sector, the existing untapped opportunities for local economic development, employment for youth and women as well as recommendations on specific interventions necessary in regulatory framework strengthening, oversight of environmental and health standards, and mechanisms for conflict management towards boosting the productivity of the development minerals sector.

These are minerals that are used in daily lives to make products such as plates, paint and toothpaste, to build houses and pave roads.

Uganda boasts of a diversity of development minerals including construction minerals such as limestone, clay gypsum, marble and sand among others. It’s also home to various industrial minerals and semi-precious stones. Despite mapping of these natural resources, many of them remain largely unexploited.

According to the statement from UNDP, The Baseline Assessment and Value Chain Analysis Reports are therefore intended to shed a light on these minerals, sharing comprehensive data on the range of these natural resources, their sites of extraction and the number of people who benefit from them especially in terms of employment.

In addition the reports contain analyses of the current laws and implications for the Development Minerals sector and provide recommendations on how the sector can be transformed to drive inclusive growth in Uganda.

The reports were commissioned by the ACP-EU Development Minerals Programme, an initiative of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, financed by the European Union and UNDP and implemented by UNDP.  The launch will be attended by various dignitaries from European Union, United Nations, Government of Uganda, various development partners, members of the private sector and academia among others.