It was apparent at the 13th annual strategy meeting of the African Initiative on Mining, Environment and Society (Aimes) held in Harare last week that challenges posed by the mining industry are similar throughout the continent. The event, which was organised by the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association (Zela) and Third World Network-Africa in collaboration with ActionAid International (Zimbabwe), ran from 21-24 June. Held under the theme: 'The African Mining Reform Agenda: Mobilising for Developmental Impacts', the meeting saw Aimes member countries, among them Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Ghana, DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe taking part. The Aimes meeting, among its many objectives, aimed at coming up with strategies to vigorously advocate for mining companies to not only accept the need to have a CSR policy, but to make it mandatory.