Project profile — Supporting the Ministry of Mines to Strengthen Governance and Management of the Mining Sector

• Ethiopia (100.00%)

• Public sector policy and administrative management:
Public sector policy and administrative management (15110) (10.00%)
Decentralisation and support to subnational government (15112) (10.00%)
Legal and judicial development (15130) (10.00%)
• Mineral Resources And Mining: Mineral/mining policy and administrative management (32210) (70.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (significant objective)
• Participatory development and good governance (significant objective)
• Trade development (significant objective)
• Climate change mitigation (significant objective)
• Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) (significant objective)
• ICT as a tool for development (significant objective)

This project aims to increase sustainable national and regional economic growth by supporting Ethiopia’s Ministry of Mines in strengthening the governance and management of the mining sector. The project seeks to enable the Ministry of Mines to effectively develop, supervise and monitor regulations and policies for the sector that secure greater economic and social benefits for all Ethiopians and mitigate negative environmental impacts. Project activities include: (1) improving the efficiency, transparency and accountability of the mining licensing management and geo-data systems, including related social and environmental standards; (2) strengthening the Ministry of Mines’ human resource management to create opportunities for gender sensitive professional development and employment; and (3) improving the Ministry of Mines’ ability to promote domestic and foreign investments in its sector.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) improved efficiency, transparency and accountability of the Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoMPNG) license management and geo-sciences data systems with effective application of environmental, safety and social standard regulations; (2) increased effectiveness of the MoMPNG key management systems and institutional functions with increased retention of male and female staff and equal professional development opportunities for men and women; and (3) increased domestic and foreign investment in exploration and exploitation activities in the Ethiopian mineral sector.

Results achieved at the end of the project (February 2023) include: (1) developed and deployed an integrated national cadaster and geoscience data system for Ethiopia`s Ministry of Mines. This enabled transparent, online mineral licensing and registration from around the globe with accurate geological and administrative information, ease of use and fast turn-around; (2) Government of Ethiopia personnel, regional government officials, and artisanal miners received equipment and capacity building to increase productivity and efficiency; (3) trained over 13,000 people on gender, environment, health and safety, and surface mining best practices; (4) increased in capital invested in mineral exploration and exploitation through domestic, foreign, and joint-venture opportunities, from 31 investments in 2016 to 956 investments cumulatively between 2017-2022; (5) created 669,666 new formal and informal jobs in the mining sector; (6) the number of exploration licenses issued at the federal and regional levels increased from 21 at baseline to 88 at project close (federal) and from 16 at baseline to 342 at project close (regional); (7) decreased the average time to process exploration applications at the federal and regional levels from 10.2 months at baseline to 6 months at project close (federal) and 12.2 months at baseline to 1.2 months at project close (regional); and (8) decreased the average time to process mining license applications at the federal and regional levels, respectively from 12.3 months to 1 month and from 12.6 months to 2.6 months

• Proactive disclosure