Supporting the Ministry of Mines (SUMM) Ethiopia

The SUMM project aligns with three principles underpinning CIRDI’s approach to public sector reform projects. These principles form the basis on which the SUMM project is implemented:

Development of National Ownership

• Link to National Objectives: The SUMM Project stemmed from a request by the Government of Ethiopia to the Government of Canada and was fully designed in partnership with the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP). The Project team worked closely with the MoMP during inception to align and co-design the project objectives and outcomes with the Government of Ethiopia’s national strategies including their GTP II, commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals and the African Mining Vision.
• Situational Assessment: During the first year of the project, SUMM staff supported the MoMP in undertaking situational and needs assessment across each thematic area and directorate. The gaps identified supported the MoMP to design reforms and interventions.
• Local expertise: CIRDI prioritizes the use of local expertise wherever possible. In Ethiopia, this has meant engaging MoMP staff as resource people to support the project over and above their contributions as Ministry staff. The project has also made efforts to involve retired or previous MoMP or GSE experts as well as Ethiopian diaspora. Use of Ethiopian expertise helps ensure activities are context specific and builds ownership of the project’s objectives and sector growth and sustainability.

Partnership and Inclusion

• Integrated and iterative planning: The project was designed and is implemented jointly with the MoMP and GSE. Each year a Project Management Unit (PMU) meets to review the successes of the previous year and plan for the coming year. The PMU is composed of representatives from each of the main directorates working with the project. The Project was designed to be implemented over five years in stages as follows: Year 1 – assessment, Year 2 – alignment, Year 3 – integration, Year 4 – operationalization and institutionalization, Year 5 – enhancing/ensuring sustainability.
• Results-Based Management (RBM): CIRDI’s projects funded by Global Affairs Canada follow the RBM approach to management. RBM allows for flexibility in activities with a strategic focus on achieving higher-level outcomes and impacts. RBM has also been adopted by the MoMP and enables the project and MoMP to adapt to changing circumstances and iteratively design plans for achieving stated results.
• Inclusion: The cross-cutting themes of gender equality, environmental sustainability and governance are incorporated into all project activities. Please see ‘Cross-Cutting Themes’ below.

Capacity Development

• Technical assistance: CIRDI is a neutral convener and centre of expertise on natural resources management. Our team connects the MoMPs with inter-disciplinary, cross-sectoral experts from government, academia, and NGOs to learn about leading practices and gain technical advice for management of the sector.
• Strategic Corner of Mines (SCOM): The SCOM was designed as a mechanism for Project participants to transfer experiences, training, and knowledge gained through conferences, study missions, and exchanges with a larger MoMP audience.
• The comparative approach: CIRDI supports the MoMP to learn about leading practice approaches and experiences from other countries. These benchmarking exercises enable the MoMP to make informed decisions on policies, practices, and frameworks.

Year 1:

• Two needs assessments were completed and included recommendations on the following:
  • required technical equipment and software for creation of a modern, transparent cadastre system
  • mineral licensing practices
• A Codification Task Force was established and workshops delivered to guide members on consolidating, simplifying, and checking for inconsistencies across multiple laws and regulations affecting the mining sector.

Year 2:

• Benchmarking exercises were undertaken to assess options for upgrading the national mining cadastre. Trimble’s Landfolio software was selected and a series of implementation phases and design sessions were agreed upon by CIRDI and the MoMP.
• Upgraded the Ministry’s internet capacity to ensure delivery of international teleconferences and trainings as well as other HR development activities.
• The Codification Task Force organized 22 meetings/working sessions to review and consolidate existing legal documents regulating the mining sector in Ethiopia.

Year 3:

• CIRDI assisted the MoMP to begin development of key strategies:
  • Mineral Policy
  • Petroleum Policy
  • Artisanal and Small-scale Mining Strategy
  • Gemstone Strategy
  • 25 year Master Plan [a discussion paper]
• The 7 phase cadastre upgrade progressed:
  • A Federal-Regional Consultative Meeting was held in December 2018. The meeting initiated discussion on the licensing workflow and processes design for each license granted at the federal and regional level. Representatives from the four regions were present (Amhara, Tigray, Oromia, SNNP).
  • A 12-member core team from the MoMP was supported to attend a design workshop in Cape Town and make decisions on critical licensing steps.
  • A regional data gathering exercise was launched to compile the most up-to-date licensing information for each region.
• 10 officials from the Environment and Community Development Directorate (ECDD) trained in Foundations of Environmental Assessment course offered by International Assessment Impact Association (IAIA).
• An assessment of occupational health and safety (OHS) practices within the mining sector in Ethiopia was completed and used to provide recommendations for the development of OHS guidance documents.

Year 1:

• Two key assessments were completed:
  • Review of the organizational structure of the Ministry and Geological Survey of Ethiopia (GSE)
  • Review of existing coordination and communication mechanism and protocols between regional and federal levels
• CIRDI convened a validation workshop to enable dialogue on sectoral issues at regional level and provided inputs for the SUMM project and MoMP related to the following: cadastre system; organizational structure; legal framework and Human Resources.
• A Gender Equality Working Group (GEWG) was established and formulated an action plan including of delivery of training for its members and regional gender focal persons.

Year 2:

• The GEWG completed a gender capacity assessment and gender mapping study to understand gender integration challenges, gaps, and opportunities and to recommend future actions.
• CIRDI supported the MoMP and GSE in designing a Mining Excellence Centre (MEC). The centre will serve as a knowledge and training hub for Federal- and Regional-Level officers. With the design agreed upon, CIRDI began the procurement process for the centre.
• SUMM annual planning brought Federal- and Regional-level governments together to review and validate the SUMM Annual Report and Annual Workplan. CIRDI also supported Federal-Regional Consultation and Planning meetings for MoMP Annual Workplans with over 100 participants.

Year 3:

• CIRDI continued to work with the MoMP on organization review and reform in Year 3 including:
  • development of induction-training packages for new hires and existing personnel of MoMP;
  • development of the Integrated Civil Service Human Resource Performance and Data Handling System within the Ministry;
  • review of directorate training programs to understand how the trainees have been institutionalizing their knowledge and skills;
  • development of a draft human resources development strategy;
  • engaged international and local experts as well as the Ethiopian Management Institute to validate, assess, and propose a revise organizational structure.
• Supported the MoMP to launch a revised Citizen Charter including installing automated kiosks in the Ministry entrance to support navigating the building and directorates and readily gaining key information.
• The GEWG started developing gender training modules to enhance gender competence within the Ministry.
• Furniture and IT equipment for the Mining Excellence Centre were installed.

Year 1:

• MoMP and GSE worked closely with SUMM to define priority focus areas to improve collection and dissemination of geoscience for the sector. Critical focus areas identified included:
  • Geological mapping;
  • Geospatial data management and systems;
  • Geochemistry; and
  • Knowledge management;
• As an initial means of connecting officials from the GSE with leading practice approaches to collect, analyze and disseminate geoscience information, the SUMM project assisted GSE directors to attend the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Conference in Toronto. Officials were exposed to new science and technology as well as institutional and structural changes that are being observed in national-level geological surveys.

Year 2:

• Five needs and capacity assessments were completed and validated in a multi-stakeholder workshop with the GSE and MoMP. Assessments focused on national- and regional-level capacity and included field visits and document reviews. Assessments and recommendations included consideration for:
  • Mineral exploration for different minerals, deposit types and sizes;
  • Material testing and laboratory equipment
  • Geospatial data management
  • Web portal management
  • Analysis and characterization of industrial minerals
• Training conducted in Year 2 included:
  • Global Mining Overview (geological, mining methods, exploration and mining finance)
  • Field Geoscience Methods
  • Mine closure training
  • Leading practice in Geospatial Data Management

Year 3:

• A focus in year 3 was enabling participation for different delegates in international conferences, study missions, and training. This included:
  • A study mission to Namibia included exchanges in leading practices with the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), the Ministry of Mines and Energy of Namibia and the Namibian Geological Survey.
  • Attendance at the Investing in African Mining Indaba (conference) in Cape Town, South Africa opportunity to benchmark leading approaches to geoscience data gathering and management and to present new achievements in geoscience data for Ethiopia.
  • ESRI Eastern African training course on (1) GIS concepts, QGIS and ArcGIS Tools; (2) ArcGIS Server: Sit Configuration and Administration; and (3) Deploying portal for ArcGIS.
  • GIS and Remote Sensing for Earth Exploration training was also organized in partnership with Bahir Dar University and offered to 29 professionals from the Regional Mining Bureaus and the GSE.
  • Geochemical Laboratory Training at the Southern and Eastern Africa Mineral Centre (SEAMIC) on: spectrometric methods; gold and precious metal analysis; modern laboratory management; body composition formulation; and gemstone characterization.
• SUMM supported the GSE to launch a nationwide data inventory to consolidate all geoscience and geospatial data collected and analyzed over the lifetime of the GSE. At the close of Year 3, metadata for several records were recorded and entered into a newly designed database that will be made available to the public and improve transparency.
• An international laboratory expert, responsible for validating and completing ISO 17025 compliance checks, was engaged to support the project in validating the geochemical and mineralogical and geotechnical laboratories at the GSE and providing recommendations for next steps.

Year 1:

• The SUMM office, systems and tools were finalized in year 1. The office is located within the MoMP building facilitating a strong relationship and enabling the SUMM team to be responsive to Ministry partners.
• Training workshops were held with MoMP, GSE and other SUMM partners such as the EITI on Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) and RBM. The session included activity planning, identification of indicators and reporting. This training session was not only applicable to monitoring results of the SUMM project but also for the MoMP to define indicators and report on progress related to Ethiopia’s GTP II.

Year 2:

• Building on the RBM and M&E training in Year 1, CIRDI supported the MoMP to map international mining and development indices (Resource Governance Index, Responsible Mining Index, Sustainable Development Goals etc.) and compare Ethiopia’s ranking and competitiveness. The MoMP subsequently designed a Mining Scorecard with key indicators for assessing the contribution of the sector across several thematic areas. The team also initiated data gathering and mapping exercises to identify where relevant data was being collected and how and work to compile data into a standard format for contribution to the Mining Scorecard.

Year 3:

• Work completed in Year 2 to benchmark the status and competitiveness of the mining sector in Ethiopia on international indices supported the development of the draft Mineral Policy. The project also supported organization of consultative meetings to inform three key policies – the mineral policy, the petroleum policy and the artisanal and small-scale mining policy.
• CIRDI supported the MoMP to develop their annual plan and the realization of the Mining Scorecard, including regional consultative meetings and launching requirements for performance reporting.