The Mozambique National Development Strategy for the period 2015-35 aims to improve the livelihoods of the population through a structural transformation of the economy, and an expansion and diversification of national production. The extractive industries play a key role in the national economy in Mozambique, representing about 7 percent of its GDP and attracting an increasing level of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). One of the government’s priorities is therefore to better harness the opportunities these industries could provide for the creation of higher value-added jobs, local economic development through enhanced linkages between extractive industries and local enterprises, especially SMEs and productive partnerships between foreign and national enterprises in the exploitation of natural resources.

In December 2022, the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, the social partners and enterprises came together to discuss opportunities for promoting and realizing decent work in the extractive sector and what were challenges that would need to be addressed. Participants discussed the guidance of the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration) in this context, agreed on priorities and reflected on follow-up actions to fully unlock the potential of the industry to contribute to sustainable enterprise development, skills development and employment creation. These discussions also took into account the environmental aspects with reflections on challenges and opportunities for a just transition towards an environmentally sustainable Mozambican economy and society and the need for long term transformation of the extractive industries.

The representatives of the government and the social partners recommended that a sub-committee would be created under the existing tripartite dialogue platform CCT (Comissão Consultiva do Trabalho) where issues related to the promotion of decent work in the extractive industries would be discussed in line with the guidance provided by the MNE Declaration.

The dialogue was organized in the context of the development cooperation project “Trade for Decent Work” implemented by the ILO and financed by the European Union and Finland. The project in Mozambique aims to support implementation of the ILO's Fundamental Conventions to fight poverty and exploitative conditions of work, and to build a common understanding of the MNE Declaration among tripartite constituents, enterprises and key national actors to stimulate the contribution of multinational enterprises to decent work.