This strategic focus area reflects an important and growing dimension of SALO’s work, engaging with climate change as a cross-cutting justice issue, while continuing to deepen its work on natural resource governance, with an emphasis on extractives – especially critical minerals.
SALO recognises that climate change is already reshaping the social, economic and political landscape across Southern Africa and the continent, with implications across core areas such as peace and security, migration, development and human rights. The disproportionate impact of climate change on Africa – despite its limited contribution to global emissions – underscores the need to approach these dynamics through a lens of equity and justice. SALO therefore mainstreams climate considerations across its work streams, supporting more inclusive and context-sensitive consensus building and advocacy around climate change and the just transition, including through engagement with a wide range of key stakeholders such as governments, civil society, trade unions and political parties, recognising their critical role in shaping inclusive and socially just transition pathways.
SALO also works on natural resource governance, with a sustained focus on extractive sectors and their governance challenges – particularly in relation to critical minerals. Africa’s significant endowment of these resources – central to global energy and digital transitions – has placed the continent at the centre of intensifying global competition for access to, and control of, supply chains, in what is increasingly characterised as a new global ‘scramble’ for Africa’s critical minerals, shaped by shifting geopolitical dynamics, strategic industrial policy, and heightened competition among major powers. While this presents opportunities for transformative development and regional integration, it also unfolds within a global context shaped by longstanding asymmetries in power, investment and value chains, raising important questions around governance, accountability, the equitable distribution of benefits, and the need to ensure that extractive activities are governed in ways that uphold human rights, support the livelihoods of affected communities, protect ecosystems, and avoid the creation of localised ‘sacrifice zones’.
SALO’s work in this area focuses on:
• Facilitating inclusive dialogue between state and non-state actors on climate, extractives and related governance issues;
• Supporting greater policy coherence and coordination across national, regional (SADC), continental and global processes;
• Integrating human security, development, environmental stewardship and sustainability considerations into policy dialogues and processes;
• Enabling evidence-informed engagement and knowledge exchange on emerging risks, opportunities and policy responses, including those relating to artisanal and small-scale mining and its significance for livelihoods across the region.
These areas increasingly intersect, particularly in the context of critical minerals, where global transitions are reshaping extractive sectors, value chains and partnerships. SALO supports dialogue and reflection on these dynamics, including their implications for equity, livelihoods, and regional stability, as well as the positioning of African actors within an evolving and increasingly contested global governance landscape.
This work builds on SALO’s established experience in extractives governance, including its role under the 2013 EU-South Africa Dialogue Facility, where it played a leading convening role in supporting South Africa’s Chairship of the Kimberley Process. In this context, SALO helped to situate debates on conflict diamonds within broader questions of democracy, peace and human rights, while strengthening civil society participation and widening engagement on issues of conflict minerals and responsible trade. This experience continues to inform SALO’s engagement with emerging governance challenges in the critical minerals sector.
As with all of SALO’s work, this focus area is grounded in its role as a facilitator of dialogue and policy engagement, contributing to more inclusive, coordinated and African-centred approaches to complex and evolving governance challenges.