DRC: Mike Hammer launches the “Makuta ya Maendeleo” for mining royalties paid to ETDs

The Ambassador of the United States in the DRC, Mike Hammer, launched this Monday July 26 in Kinshasa, the project “Makuta ya Maendeleo” or “Money for Development”. A project supported by the US State Department, through its embassy in the DRC, implemented by the Carter Center, Resource Matters, and their partners, which focuses on transparent and prudent management of mining royalties paid to Territorial Entities Decentralized (ETDs) and the Mining Fund for Future Generations, (FOMIN).

In his speech, Mike Hammer, American ambassador to the DRC, hammered home the concern of the United States to see the Congolese populations benefit from the mineral resources of the DRC.

“It is my honor to be here with you today to announce the launch of the US Embassy Fiscal Transparency Innovation Fund project. As part of the Privileged Partnership For Peace and Prosperity (# PP4PP) between the United States and the DRC, our embassy is committed to ensuring that the mineral wealth of the DRC leads to meaningful results for mining communities and the nation, ”he said. 

He also called for frank collaboration between the government and civil society to ensure the proper applicability of the revised mining code.

“To achieve this, stakeholders must work together, including through partnerships between government and civil society, to ensure that the revised mining law in 2018 is effectively implemented. This project has the full support of the Department. State of the United States, ”hammered Mike Hammer.

For his part, the Minister of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, who took part in the launch of this project, welcomed this initiative of civil society and listed the challenges that must be met for its success. 

“This initiative taken by civil society deserves to be encouraged. There is a great challenge behind this initiative including respect for the law to ensure that the resources paid by the miners arrive at their destination. There are many difficulties along the way. The first difficulty is that of capacity at the ETD level. There must be leaders within the communities who are enlightened and who can lead opinion in the right direction. also good governance at the provincial level.It is not fair to impose heavy social responsibility burdens on mining companies and at the same time not properly use the resources that are legal to reach ETDs. .We are also working for the signing of an interministerial decree in this direction, ”said the national treasurer.

In addition, Jean-Pierre Okenda, member of Resource Matters, one of Makuta Ya Maendeleo’s platforms, elaborated on the objectives assigned to this project. 

“It is a project with a national vocation. Its objective is to develop a national strategy which will promote better management and allocation of the mining royalty from ETDs. First of all, we will concentrate in the producing areas. of cobalt, copper and gold. But in reality the vocation of the project is that we arrive at a national strategy. The current phase consists in supporting the government and the ETDs so that we do not stop at the modification of the mining code but to ensure that the money paid can have an impact on the local level “, he explained.

In the same vein, the country representative of the Carter Center in the DRC, Jean-Louis Karl, also welcomed the involvement of the American and Congolese governments in this project.

“I thank the American government and the American embassy in the DRC for having accepted to support the Makuta consortium of which the Carter Center is a part. I also thank the Congolese government for its openness to collaboration with civil society. The Makuta project has interesting objectives because they aim to change the paradigm decried between the high level of mining in the country generally by large foreign companies and the low level of development of the populations directly impacted by this exploitation. Congolese women take full advantage of mining and this can only happen through the implementation of policies that promote good governance, “he said. 

The Makuta ya Maendeleo project ensures that the royalties are paid to the government rather than diverted, and that the government uses the royalties to improve the lives of the people.