UNDP, Sweden’s Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency are pleased to launch the Users Guide on Assessing the Rule of Law in Public Administration: The Mining Sector, which has been designed to help policymakers and civil servants identify specific strengths and challenges in the application of principles of the rule of law in the way the public administration regulates the mining industry.

Ensuring the rule of law in the exploitation of natural resources, including metals and minerals, is essential to ensuring inclusive and sustainable economic growth and human development, and to protecting and fulfilling human rights. This new guide introduces a self-assessment tool to help government officials and civil society stakeholders evaluate the extent to which principles of the rule of law – and, by extension, procedural environmental rights (the right to participate in decision making, access to information, access to justice and redress) are respected in the governance of the mining sector.

This tool was piloted between 2015 and 2017 in Colombia,  Mongolia and Mozambique with a focus on large-scale mining and the extent to  which principles of the rule of law—and, by extension, procedural environmental  rights (the right to participate in decision-making and access to information,  justice and redress)—are respected in environmental governance of the mining sector. It builds on previous cooperation between UNDP and the FBA that resulted in the Guidance Note for Assessing Rule of Law in Public Administration.

Step 1: Inception 

Step 2: Formal mapping

Step 3: Agency staff survey

Step 4: Target group

Step 5: Data analysis, triangulation and report-writing

Step 6: Presentation and dissemination of results

 

Appendix 1: Sample questionnaire for formal mapping 

Appendix 2: Sample questionnaire for agency staff survey

Appendix 3: Sample questionnaire for target group survey

Appendix 4: Sample report outline

Appendix 5: Survey sampling strategies

Appendix 6: Sample guidelines for training enumerators

Appendix 7: Sample terms of reference for independent experts

Appendix 8: Sample terms of reference for the advisory committee

Appendix 9: Sample action plan outline