Togo - Mining Governance and Development Project

Overview & Synopsis

Ratings for the Mining Governance and Development Project for Togo were as follows: outcome and Bank performance was satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation (M and E) quality was substantial. Some lessons learned included: the first lesson to be drawn is that it will have been advantageous to have developed and agreed the national mining sector policy priorities and strategy prior to project effectiveness. The second lesson, which is confirmed in other countries with similar technical assistance (TA) support (Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Madagascar), is that a realistic timeframe for transformational sector support will often require at least a decade of engagement and likely to require at least two cycles of TA support or other investment instruments. It is also likely that legal reforms in the Togolese mining sector could have been more consequential if the TA support had been combined with policy lending, such as a development policy operation (DPO) series to ensure broad-based client engagement from central ministries, including the Ministry of Planning and Development, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and others. Likewise, the absence of the International Finance Corporation in the mining sector in Togo was a limiting factor for private sector reform. The internship program was closely linked to training and capacity building for the new information technology (IT) systems to manage mineral license and geological data. As such, the capacity building strategy had a clear audience and well-defined end goals in terms of ensuring sustainability of project activities.