Event Description: Provincial Presentation of Issues Paper on “A Balancing Act for Extractive Sector Governance”

On August 27, 2016 Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) facilitated the presentation of the Govern4Afg issue paper titled “A balancing Act for Extractive Sector Governance” authored by Javed Noorani at the Governor’s Office, Herat Province from 09:00-12:00 hours.The presentation of the research findings and recommendations was graced by the director of Mines and Petroleum of Herat province, and the Herat Governor’s Office officials and staff who co-hosted the event. Such activity was well-attended by participants from government, private sector, Herat-Afghanistan Mine & Factory Owners Union, civil society, academia and the media.

The opening remarks were given by Mr. Mohammad Asif Saeedi the Director of Herat Human Resources on behalf of the Herat Governor, who highlighted the importance of holding seminars based on scientific research and disseminate such scientific and scholarly write-ups. The Director of Technical Services and sector, Mr. Ahmad Shuayb Masumi affirmed the gaps and challenges in the system and process of contracting, supervising, and arbitrary extraction in this particular sector. He welcomed the research output of Govern4Afg as a step to address these challenges.

Moreover, Mr. Abdul Jamil Elyasi, Director of Mines and Petroleum appreciated the Govern4Afg issues paper as a very important and necessary study on the mining sector in Afghanistan. He welcomed that the findings were also presented in Herat province, which is particularly rich in mineral resources. According to him,  the low level of technical and legal knowledge of the mining sector is one of the major challenges for the extractive sector is exploited.