Towards a Sustainable Development Licence to Operate for the extractive sector: Consultation paper from the International Resource Panel Working Group on mineral resource governance for sustainable development

Mineral resources are a foundation of social and economic development. The 17 Goals and 169 Targets in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognise the importance of these resources, and depend on infrastructure and technologies that use them in vast quantities. Mineral resources present major governance challenges for many countries, in particular for developing countries. The governance architecture of the extractive sector currently suffers from a range of well-documented shortcomings, which undermine its ability to deliver social, economic, environmental and governance benefits. This consultation paper introduces—and seeks feedback concerning—the International Resource Panel's efforts to formulate a new multi-level governance framework for the extractive sector, entitled the Sustainable Development Licence to Operate or SDLO. The SDLO builds on the achievements of the social licence to operate, and is not intended to function as a licence in the regulatory sense. It will instead set out clear principles, policy options and best practice that are intended to function as a common reference point, enabling all public, private and other relevant actors in the extractive sector to make decisions compatible with the 2030 Agenda's vision of sustainable development

Mineral Resource Governance in the 21st Century: Gearing extractive industries towards sustainable development

The IRP Report on Mineral Resource Governance in the 21st Century was requested by\ua0the IRP Steering Committee at its 18th Meeting (Cape Town, 6–9 June 2016). The Report\ua0also responds to a Recommendation adopted at the 21st Meeting of the Convention on\ua0Biological Diversity Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice\ua0(Montreal, 11–14 December 2017).1The structure and content of the Report was informed by a series of expert workshops\ua0convened in Davos (15–16 October 2015), Accra (26–27 September 2016), Helsinki\ua0(9-10 June 2017), and Lima (22–24 November 2017). It was also informed by a global\ua0stakeholder consultation process