Africa Unites for a Just Minerals Future: Pamoja Alliance Launches in Harare
Harare, Zimbabwe – 25-26 February 2026 – The Pamoja Critical Minerals Alliance Africa (PCMA) convened its inaugural Continental Strategy Planning Workshop and Official Launch in Harare.
Facilitated by Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW), the workshop brings together grassroots activists, Indigenous leaders, trade unions, faith-based organisations, women’s and youth movements, disability rights advocates, and policy experts from across Africa. Over two days, participants worked to craft a bold three-year continental strategy aimed at transforming how Africa governs, benefits from, and safeguards its critical minerals.
Africa’s vast reserves of lithium, cobalt, manganese, rare earth elements and other strategic minerals have become central to global geopolitical competition, climate policy, and energy transition pathways. These minerals are essential for batteries, electric vehicles, renewable energy infrastructure, and digital technologies powering the so-called green revolution.
Yet, as speaker after speaker reminded participants, Africa’s long history with extractivism has often meant poverty, displacement, labour exploitation, environmental degradation, and exclusion for communities living closest to mining operations.
The workshop opened with a full room of continental participants, signalling both urgency and resolve.
In his opening remarks, Dr Claude Kabemba, Executive Director of SARW, said natural wealth used without sustainable and equitable planning harms the prosperity of Africa.
