Third World Network Africa (TWN Africa) and the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) with support from TrustAfrica, organized a regional conference on the future role of mining in Africa under the theme: Beyond foreign direct investment in Africa’s mining sector.  The conference took place in Accra, Ghana from November 5^th – 7^th 2008.

It was attended by a wide variety of participants including: representatives from a number of mining communities in Ghana, UN experts from the UNECA, UNEC Latin America and UNCTAD and representatives from ECOWAS. Others were civil society organisations working on mining and the extractive sector in Africa, from Zambia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, as well as academics from Ghana, and the universities of Leeds, Manchester and Reading. Representatives from various institutions in Ghana whose work are connected with the mining sector – Internal Revenue Service, the Minerals Commission and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and the media were also in attendance.