The Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for the Great Lakes region attended the 26^th meeting of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) regional committee on the fight against the illegal exploitation of natural resources held from 25 to 27 July 2023 in Angola’s capital, Luanda.

This statutory meeting, anchored on Chapter 3 of the ICGLR Protocol against the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Great Lakes region, was attended by high officials from the 12 countries of the ICGLR, as well as the ICGLR Executive Secretary, Amb. João Samuel Caholo, and several development partners. The meeting’s opening and closing ceremonies were both chaired by Angola’s Secretary of State of Mineral Resources, Dr. Jânio Corrêa Victor.

The committee is an important platform to advance regional dialogue aimed at accelerating the implementation of the Regional Initiative on Natural Resources (RINR), launched in 2010 by the leaders of the region for the achievement of peace and sustainable development in the Great Lakes region. The meeting provided an opportunity for representatives of the member States and ICGLR Secretariat to update on the status of implementation of national and regional roadmaps on the fight against the illegal exploitation of natural resources since the last session held in Lusaka, Zambia, on 15-18 November 2022.

Building on experience and best practices on the Kimberly Process Certification System, the meeting deliberated also on the development of a sustainable self-financing mechanism for the implementation of the RINR. Additionally, the participants validated the terms of reference of two studies aimed at assessing the implementation of the RINR.

The 12 countries composing the ICGLR are Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Republic of South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia.