Brussels, 15th October 2026 – CSR Europe in collaboration with RES4Africa Foundation, convened a high-level Leadership Roundtable titled “Due Diligence for Responsible Materials Sourcing and Local Value Chain Creation” as part of the European Sustainable Industry Summit.
The session brought together senior representatives from African governments, European institutions, companies, investors and civil society to explore how Europe can secure resilient access to raw materials while ensuring that investment partnerships also generate local economic value, industrial capacity, jobs and skills in African sourcing countries.
Europe’s growing demand for raw materials is creating opportunities to strengthen partnerships with African sourcing countries, while African countries are increasingly seeking cooperation that goes beyond extraction and contributes to local value addition, infrastructure, skills and broader economic development.
Against this backdrop, the roundtable examined how responsible sourcing and due diligence can go beyond compliance requirements to support investment readiness, supplier upgrading and more competitive value chains for both Africa and Europe. This requires looking at due diligence within a broader framework that connects responsible sourcing with the conditions needed for long-term investment and local value creation, including energy, infrastructure, skills and industrial capacity.
Using international trade corridors as a practical reference point, the discussion considered how these can become more than routes for transporting raw materials and contribute to broader regional development. This includes creating the conditions for local processing and value addition, strengthening infrastructure and skills, and fostering effective cooperation and governance across countries and sectors. In this perspective, the impact of a corridor depends not only on the infrastructure itself, but also on the wider systems and partnerships built around it.
The roundtable opened with remarks by Stefan Crets, CSR Europe, and Daniele Guzzo, RES4Africa Foundation.
Keynote contributions were delivered by Benitha Tambwhe, Head of Partnership Monitoring at the DRC Ministry of Mines (CTCPM), Elisabetta Sartorel, European Commission, DG INTPA, and Roberto Vigotti, Secretary General of RES4Africa Foundation.
The discussion focused on two key themes: “A New Africa-Europe Collaboration”, exploring how cooperation can address Europe’s materials supply needs while creating economic opportunities in Africa; and “Turning Due Diligence into Value”, examining how due diligence can contribute to development, competitiveness and supplier engagement.
The Leadership Roundtable provided a platform to reflect on the conditions that can help unlock greater European investment in African critical raw materials value chains. Reliable energy, infrastructure, industrial capacity, skills, governance and finance can play an important role in creating an enabling environment for long-term investment and ensuring that greater value is retained in producing countries. Strengthening these dimensions can help turn material corridors into platforms for regional development and more resilient, competitive and mutually beneficial Africa-Europe partnerships.
“Responsible sourcing must go beyond compliance to address the conditions that make long-term partnerships possible. Reliable energy, infrastructure, industrial capacity, skills and sound governance are essential to creating local value and more resilient value chains. This is where Europe can engage not only as a buyer of materials, but as a long-term partner,” said Roberto Vigotti, Secretary General of RES4Africa Foundation.
“Due diligence needs to be leveraged through engagement and investment, also from downstream companies in sourcing countries. This will create the win-win needed for a sustainable economy: resilience through materials secturity for downstream companies and local value creation in resource rich countries. That is why CSR Europe and Drive Sustainability are engaging to facilitate local sustaianbility networks with mining companies in DRC”, said Stefan Crets, Executive Director CSR Europe.
