News:
What Is MMSD?

Why Is The Project Needed?

What Will MMSD Do?

Who Runs The Project?

Where Does The Project Stand?

An Invitation To Participate

For a printable version of the MMSD news bulletin, click here.

Welcome to the first bulletin about the Mining Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project being conducted by the International Institute for Environment and Development.

What Is MMSD?

The Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development Project (MMSD) is an independent process of participatory analysis with the objective of "identifying how mining and minerals can best contribute to the global transition to sustainable development". It is a two-year project designed both to produce concrete results during this period, and to create structures capable of being carried forward thereafter. A key product of MMSD will be a project report to be presented during the proposed Earth Summit in 2002.

MMSD has been initiated by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as one of a number of projects being supported by the Global Mining Initiative (GMI). GMI was formed by the Chief Executive Officers of several of the world's principal mining companies. The project is managed by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London, UK, under contract to the WBCSD. More information about IIED is available at www/iied.org/mmsd.

The objectives of MMSD are explained in a Scoping Report prepared by IIED for the WBCSD in 1999, which suggests why a new initiative is needed, and how it will work. The Scoping Report, and other information about MMSD, will shortly be available on the IIED web site.

Why Is The Project Needed?

The mining and minerals sector is being affected by a number of powerful trends that will shape the business environment in which the industry operates in the new century. Perhaps none of these is more challenging than the call for a global transition to sustainable development, based on a vision of achieving a better quality of life for the world population today, while preserving and enhancing the ability of future generations to achieve a higher quality of life for themselves when we are gone.

A range of factors are now coming together to produce an agenda for change in mineral production and consumption. These include globalisation, the communications' revolution, rising public expectations of corporate responsibility, pressures from financial markets, the burning needs of the world's poor, the growing importance of cultural diversity, the imperative of respect for human rights, as well as the need to eliminate environmental hazards and regenerate the natural resource base for future generations.

While social and environmental performance in mineral production and consumption has improved to some extent, a clear picture of how the cycle will have to adapt to these challenges has yet to emerge. Critical bottlenecks such as lack of trust among companies, governments and civil society, and the absence of the necessary skills, resources and institutional capacity to deliver on the sustainable development agenda are preventing progress.

A number of initiatives addressing elements of the mining, minerals and sustainable development agenda are underway. In isolation, they may lack the critical mass needed to achieve the transformation required. The MMSD project is founded on the belief that there is room for a new initiative which can catalyse and bring together efforts of the widest possible set of actors to develop a comprehensive and intelligible agenda around which stakeholders can come together to create change.

What Will MMSD Do?

The project intends to combine high quality analysis and research with stakeholder engagement to carry out four main objectives:

• First, to assess global mining and minerals use in terms of sustainable development. This will cover the current contribution - both positive and negative - to economic prosperity, human well-being, ecosystem health and accountable decision making, as well as past practice;
• Second, to identify how the services provided by the minerals' system can be delivered in accordance with sustainable development in the future;
• Third, to propose key elements for follow-up to improve the minerals' system; and
• Fourth - and crucial for long-term impact - to build a platform of analysis and engagement for ongoing cooperation and networking between all stakeholders.

To achieve these objectives, the project will proceed along four main tracks. These will be woven together in a dynamic and integrated process:

• Research and Analysis. A focused programme of research and analysis, designed to advance understanding of priority issues.
  
  
• Stakeholder Engagement. An ambitious programme of engagement with stakeholders, both at the global level and regionally.
  
  
• Information and Communication. An ongoing programme of communication with interested parties regarding goals, processes and key outputs.
  
  
• Implementation. A consensus-based programme for voluntary implementation by a variety of stakeholders of the project results.

IIED's goal is that outputs are broadly recognised as emerging from a fair and transparent process and produced to high standards of analytical rigour, representing a shared outcome of a range of stakeholders.

Some elements of the project will be implemented by the project Work Group in London, or directly contracted by them to other institutions. However, the project aims to decentralise much of its work into a series of regional centres in the principal mineral producing and consuming regions of the world. MMSD is actively seeking to build partnerships with existing institutions in these regions to carry this work forward. The project will have an ethic of cooperation, trying wherever possible to build on and complement existing activities.

Who Runs The Project?

Governance and implementation of the project is divided among three main groups, in order to ensure the quality, effectiveness and integrity of the work.

1. The day to day implementation of the project will be the responsibility of the Work Group based in London, under a Project Director who reports to the Executive Director of IIED. Various project functions will be subcontracted to policy institutes, research centres, individual consultants, and others. As indicated, we anticipate a major role for regional partner institutions.
   
   
2. The Sponsoring Group will represent those organisations financing the project and will be responsible for overall project stewardship and supervision. The intention is to establish a broad-based funding group from business, government, international institutions, private foundations and leading NGOs. The Sponsoring Group will communicate with the Project Director through Richard Sandbrook, of the WBCSD, who the Sponsors have appointed as Project Coordinator.
   
   
3. The Assurance Group will be made up of individuals who are acknowledged as authorities in the various subjects related to the project objectives. It will be balanced and diverse, recognising the variety of stakeholders with vital interests in themes related to sustainable development in the mineral industries, the differing interests of the world's mineral producing and consuming regions, and other factors. The Assurance Group will be in charge of assuring adequate peer review of all project outputs. It will oversee the design, conduct and outputs of the project, and provide regular advice to the Work Group.

Where Does The Project Stand?

A number of key project activities at this time are:

• The project has appointed a Director, Luke Danielson, who will start work in London on 1 April 2000.
  
  
• Nick Robins of IIED has been designated Acting Project Director. Both he and Elisabeth Wood, Assistant Project Manager, also of IIED, will have substantial ongoing roles in MMSD as it develops.
  
  
• Two senior staff - the Research Manager and the Coordinator of Stakeholder Engagement - are actively being recruited, and recruitment for several other positions will shortly be announced.
  
  
• In April, the project will announce formation of its Assurance Group. The Group as announced will have approximately half of its eventual complement of 24 members, to leave space for inclusion of additional members as needs are identified in specific areas. The first Assurance Group meeting will be held in late May 2000.
  
  
• The project is organising a Research Workshop for early May 2000 to begin the development of its research agenda.

An Invitation To Participate

MMSD is an ambitious venture that depends on the active involvement of communities, companies, governments, civil society, the research community, existing institutions active in the field and many others for its success.

If you would like to receive periodic bulletins about MMSD, or have other enquiries, please e-mail mmsd@iied.org.

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