Resource information
The Strategic Environmental and Social
Assessment (SESA) of the mining sector in Sierra Leone was
undertaken in response to the Government of Sierra
Leone's (GOSL) request for assistance in developing its
minerals policy. The SESA will help meet long-term country
development by integrating environmental and social
considerations in mining sector reforms. The crucial aspect
of the SESA process is that the environmental and social
priorities for mining reforms were identified by
stakeholders in the four regions of the country. This
report, the culmination of a sequence of workshops and
analytic work, provides a summary of the findings of the
SESA process and makes recommendations on the policy,
institutional, and governance changes required addressing
environmental and social priorities in reform of the Sierra
Leone mining sector. The SESA pays particular attention to
political economy issues such as the potential capture or
watering down of reforms by groups having vested interests
or the danger of selective implementation of new policies
and regulations due to pressure from powerful interest
groups. It helps to identify innovative solutions to some of
the potential problems and the limitations of new mining
policies in a situation where institutional and governance
capacity are likely to be weak for some time.
