A New Partnership to Embed Learning in Transition Minerals Policymaking
Amid the global rush for transition minerals, essential for a range of energy technologies, policymakers across Africa, Asia and Latin America need to make major decisions far faster than existing learning models can support. Governments are weighing complex choices about leveraging resources for economic growth, value addition, industrial policy, infrastructure, fiscal terms, environmental safeguards and protection of communities, yet the ways countries traditionally learn from one another—study tours, stand-alone workshops, generic technical guidance—have not kept pace.
During the Natural Resource Governance Institute’s (NRGI) convening at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in 2024, government officials and experts from across the Global South reflected on what is needed to support countries to build diversified minerals supply chains while enhancing the well-being of communities and support national economic development objectives. One message stood out: the need for practical, real-time learning that speaks directly to the policy challenges that countries are confronting now, not tools that sit outside the policymaking process.
That recognition—voiced directly by policymakers—is the starting point for the South–South Transition Minerals Learning Platform, which NRGI and partners launched last week in Bali, Indonesia, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation. The launch followed a four-day international dialogue co-hosted by the Indonesian government and NRGI on “Unlocking Equitable Mineral Value Addition,” which gathered officials from 10 Global South countries to share experiences, ideas and opportunities to drive sustainable development of economic opportunities around the global race for transition minerals.
The platform is built around a simple but powerful idea: countries learn best from one another when that learning is directly connected to the policy challenges they are confronting. This represents an evolution from dialogue to co-production of knowledge: countries working together, in real time, to develop, test, and refine practices that respond to their own development priorities.
Indonesia’s own experience featured prominently in these early exchanges. Participants discussed how the government combined export restrictions with investment incentives and sustained policy coordination to push investment into domestic mineral processing. Despite external pressure from trading partners to lift raw-material export bans, Indonesia prioritized national development objectives as part of a broader industrial strategy. This approach has helped catalyse large-scale downstream investment, industrial parks and skills development, while also underscoring the importance of continual regulatory adjustment and institutional capacity to manage trade-offs during implementation.
The inaugural meeting of the Platform enabled participants to map their priority challenges and shape the initial learning agenda. Our discussions focused on real policy choices governments are weighing now—including how to assess the commercial and infrastructure requirements for value addition and linkages to national development strategy—providing a concrete foundation for the collaborative work ahead.
Together, we aim to foster continuous engagement: participants will meet regularly through regional and thematic workshops, virtual exchanges and targeted research collaborations. These mechanisms ensure that South–South learning is sustained, with countries identifying learning priorities, continually sharing experiences, and testing new approaches. The approach responds to what policymakers have consistently emphasized: the most valuable knowledge sharing comes from peers. Participants in the Platform launch emphasized the important role it can play in grounding policymaking in learning and evidence.
“For Indonesia, downstream industrialization has never been about copying models from elsewhere. It has been about making clear policy choices, learning through implementation, and continuously adjusting based on what works and what does not. This dialogue showed the value of countries learning directly from one another - sharing not just successes, but also the challenges and trade-offs involved in turning mineral wealth into long-term economic value.” Septian Hario Seto, Executive Secretary, National Economic Council of Indonesia
Looking ahead, the next year represents an opportunity to deepen this community of practice and generate the evidence and peer-to-peer learning governments need most. As this work unfolds, NRGI and The Rockefeller Foundation are committed to supporting decisionmakers as they research practices to inform policies that advance economic opportunity, safeguard communities and the environment, and ensure that the energy transition delivers meaningful benefits across the Global South.
