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PEDRO
Antonio PEDRO
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Yaoundé
Director, Sub Regional Office - Central Africa
Antonio M.A. Pedro is a mineral exploration geologist and development practitioner with more than 30 years of broad experience at national, sub-regional, and continental levels. He joined the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in 2001, where he is currently the Director of ECA’s Sub-regional Office for Central Africa, based in Yaounde, Cameroon. For 7 years, he occupied the same position in the ECA office for Eastern Africa, in Kigali, Rwanda. Prior to joining ECA, he was the Director General of the Southern and Eastern African Mineral Centre (SEAMIC), in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Managing Director of several companies in Mozambique and Deputy National Director of the country’s Geological Survey. In his current capacity as Director of ECA's SRO-CA, he played a leading role in the formulation and adoption of the Douala Consensus on economic diversification, the publication and production of the “Made in Central Africa: From a Vicious to a Virtuous Circle” flagship publication and video, respectively, which have become the frameworks informing ECA’s support to Central African governments aimed at diversifying their economies and reducing exposure to external shocks arising out of an excessive dependence on the export of commodities. As Director of SRO-EA, he provided thought leadership and helped elucidate pathways and design practical tools and integrated solutions on issues of sustainable development and structural transformation, governance of natural resources, tourism, blue economy, ICT and infrastructure development, and regional integration. To this end, he introduced new workstreams in the work of the office on the Blue Economy (including the publication of the Africa’s Blue Economy: A Policy Handbook); helped the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL) and the Northern Corridor with the formulation of their 5-year strategic plans to improve the focus and strategic orientation of the work of the organisations; guided the formulation of a Business Plan for the ICGLR Regional Initiative Against the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources; mainstreamed regional integration dimensions in the work of Rwanda's UN Country Team and supported the government of Rwanda to formulate the “National Regional Integration Policy and Strategy”, the first of its kind in Eastern Africa; spearheaded work on tourism leading to the formulation and adoption of the Sustainable Tourism Master Plan for the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Region (officially launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in December 2013), a reference framework which informs work on tourism in countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia; supported the formulation of Rwanda's first Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, the formulation and implementation of its national ICT policies (NICI II and NICI III) and the establishment of the Rwanda Innovation Fund; and led the process towards the establishment of the SRCM for Eastern and Southern Africa and formulation of its Business Plan. Moreover, through high-level policy dialogues, retreats with Cabinet Ministers, study tours and dedicated advisory services, he helped shape the policy discourse and practice on sustainable development and structural transformation issues in several Eastern African countries, especially in Rwanda and Kenya. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he spearheaded the formulation of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV) which was adopted by the African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government in February 2009 as the continental framework for the sustainable development of the extractive sector in Africa. The Vision advocates for “transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development”. As Chief of Infrastructure and Natural Resources Development at ECA, he led the work of the organisation on mining, water, transport, and energy development. As such, he was responsible for promoting regional policy harmonisation and alignment; developing conceptual frameworks to support integrated infrastructure and natural resources development and to strengthen the business fundamentals of regional projects and their ability to scale-up multiplier effects and foster linkages across multiple value chains; spearheading policy analysis, raising awareness and building consensus on emerging issues; and disseminating best practices, building capacity and rendering advisory services in the fields of mining, water, transport, and energy development. He is a member of the International Resources Panel (IRP), Leadership Council of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Co-Chair of the SDSN Thematic Network on the Good Governance of Extractive and Land Resources (TG10), a faculty member and visiting lecturer of the “Extractive Industry and Sustainable Development Executive Training Programme” at the Columbia Centre on Sustainable Investment (CCSI), a joint center of Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, as well as a former lecturer on Mineral Policy and Contract Negotiations at the United Nations African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (UNIDEP) and Honorary Fellow of the Graduate School of Natural Resources Law, Policy and Management of the University of Dundee, Scotland. He is also a member of the Board of Directors and Advisory Groups of several institutions and global initiatives including the Advisory Board of CCSI and RE-SOURCING - A Global Stakeholder Platform for Responsible Sourcing, member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Scientific Journal, Mineral Economics, and of the Editorial Board of “Mineral Choices”, an online education platform. He is a former member of the Global Tailings Review, Global Agenda Council on the Future of Mining and Metals of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Strategic Management Advisory Group (SMAG) of the World Bank hosted Communities and Small-scale Mining (CASM) and of the Advisory Boards of the Diamond Development Initiative (DDI) and the International Centre for Training and Exchanges in Geosciences (CIFEG). Through collaboration with WEF, the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) , UNSDSN, IRP, the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) and other platforms, he advocates Africa’s positions at the global level and contributes to shaping global thinking and discourse on development issues of concern to Africa and the world, especially those related to sustainable development and shared value creation, geopolitics of resource extraction and global resource security, the future of mining, conflict minerals, corporate social responsibility, responsible mining, resource-based industrialisation and linkages development, markets and commodity prices, contract negotiations, illicit financial flows, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and international governance architecture in fragile terrains (e.g. sea-bed resources). With the CCSI, Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), the World Bank and SDSN, he contributed to the production of a massive open online course (MOOC) on Natural Resources for Sustainable Development: The Fundamentals of Oil, Gas and Mining Governance. His current research interest focuses on economic diversification and industrial policy as well as mineral resources governance and the interface between mineral resources exploitation and the SDGs. Through his paper “Towards a sustainable development licence to operate for the extractive sector” he introduced the concept of Sustainable Development Licence to Operate (SDLO) to the world. He is a co-lead author of the IRP report “Mineral resource governance in the 21st Century: gearing extractive industries towards sustainable development”, which is anchored on the SDLO.
Areas of Expertise
Commodities, Commodity-based Economic Development, Development, Development Planning, Energy Resources, Environment, Geology, Green Industrialization, Industry, Mineral And Energy Resources Management, Mineral Exploration, Mineral Resources, Mining And Petroleum Laws, Natural Resource & Energy, Natural Resources And The Environment, Natural Resources And The Environment, Development, Natural Resources Management, Regional Integration, Regional Integration & Infrastructure, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Infrastructure Development

Education:

Master's Degree
Mineral Exploration
Imperial College, London
Mineral Exploration
Bachelor's degree
Geology
Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo
Geology

Language:

English
French
Portuguese

Publication:

Mainstreaming Mineral Wealth in Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategies, Minerals & Energy - Raw Materials Report, 21:1, 2-16, DOI: 10.1080/14041040500504319

Taylor&Francis

2006
The Country Mining Vision: Towards a New Deal, Mineral Economics, Miner Econ 29, 15–22 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13563-015-0075-y

Springer

2016
Towards a Sustainable Development Licence to Operate for the Extractive Sector,Pedro, A., Ayuk, E.T., Bodouroglou, C. et al. Miner Econ 30, 153–165 (2017). https://doi.org/10

Springer

2017
Mineral Resource Governance in the 21st Century: Gearing extractive industries towards sustainable development. Ayuk, E. T., Pedro, A. M., Ekins, P., Gatune, J., Milligan, B., Oberle B., Christmann, P., Ali, S., Kumar, S. V, Bringezu, et al.,

UNEP, . A Report by the International Resource Panel. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya

2020
The Africa Mining Vision as a model for natural resource governance in Africa

Taylor&Francis

2016
Yes