Building EU-Africa partnerships on sustainable raw materials value chain

• Forschungsstelle: SBFI
• Projektnummer: 22.00065

Abstract (Englisch)

Secure the access to raw materials represents a critical issue for European ambition to deliver the Green Deal and perform the energy and digital twin transition. As future demand of primary critical raw materials will continue to be largely met by importations, EU needs to diversify its supply chain and engage strategic partnerships with resources-rich third countries covering extraction, processing and refining such as African countries. In this framework, AfricaMaVal project aims to develop EU-Africa partnership ensuring a responsible sourcing of mineral resources for the European industry while granting a sustainable local co-development in the best Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) conditions and leading to a long-terms business environment for European and African companies. The consortium, created with partners coming both from Africa and Europe, is based on experienced organizations and networks deeply anchored and involved in the raw material domain with a specific expertise and knowledge of the African culture, organisations, difficulties and resources. The mineral, financial, environmental, social, institutional and economical aspects will be studied along with all the value chains, including the ASSM activities, to the project completion to reach its operational targets: - Building an EU and Africa business networking on the whole CRM value chains. - Developing a strategy on the integration of identified and emerging EU and African raw materials value chains for the energy and digital transition. - Assessing responsible investment opportunities. The AfricaMaVal project will conduct ten case studies in African countries and an evaluation of 100 investment opportunities, a wide dissemination within Europe and Africa to promote responsible sourcing and will implement a sustainable organisation after the completion of the project.