Champion · Due Diligence

La Sentinelle: Watching Over the DRC’s Natural Resources

An independent Congolese NGO dedicated to natural-resource governance, working so that the extraction of critical minerals translates into sustainable development for the communities at the source.

Founded in Lubumbashi in 2018 by three alumni of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, after two years as an informal think tank, La Sentinelle des Ressources Naturelles works on transparency, extractive-revenue management, environmental justice, community participation and a just energy transition.

From the copper and cobalt belt (Lubumbashi, Kipushi, Kolwezi, Fungurume) to Kinshasa and Manono, the organisation follows the value chains close to the ground. On the Nashiriki platform, it leads local coordination of the Energy Transition Minerals project: due diligence carried out with local stakeholders, not about them.

La Sentinelle presents the due-diligence framework for energy-transition minerals at a packed workshop in Kolwezi
Founded2018 · think tank since 2016
OfficesLubumbashi & Kinshasa
FocusNatural-resource governance
Websitesentineldrc.org

Minerals for the energy transition should fund development at their source.

The DRC is central to global supply chains for energy-transition minerals. La Sentinelle works to guarantee that their exploitation contributes to sustainable development, institutional stability and better living conditions.

La Sentinelle in dialogue with community members at an open meeting in Manono
Who They Are

A watchdog born in the copper belt

The organisation began in late 2016 as an informal think tank of extractive-sector practitioners, before formal registration in 2018. Led by Executive Director Jean Pierre Okenda, a lawyer who previously led the Natural Resource Governance Institute’s work in the DRC, it is present today in Lubumbashi, Kipushi, Kolwezi, Kinshasa and the mining areas of Fungurume and Manono.

Its recent work includes facilitating civil-society consultations on the national strategic-minerals strategy, assessing the DRC’s governance against the African Mining Vision, organising multi-stakeholder workshops on emissions transparency, and supporting climate-affected women farmers in Kipushi.

That experience now anchors the Energy Transition Minerals project in the field: the team works alongside cooperatives and authorities in the mining areas, carries the system’s innovations out to them, and feeds their responses back into the platform.

What They Do

Research, advocacy and action on the ground.

From applied research to open letters to the President, La Sentinelle works on every lever of natural-resource governance.

Transparency in critical-minerals management, the fight against corruption and illicit financial flows, community participation in decisions and local value transformation. With Resource Matters, La Sentinelle convenes the civil-society consultations feeding the DRC’s national strategy for strategic minerals.

Highlights

Regional consultations held in Bunia, Lubumbashi and Kolwezi, consolidated nationally in Kinshasa in May 2026

A sustained campaign, with AFREWATCH, for an independent audit of the Mining Fund for Future Generations

Where They Work

From the copper belt to the capital.

Headquartered in Lubumbashi with an office in Kinshasa, La Sentinelle follows the minerals wherever they surface.

Lubumbashi
Lubumbashi

Headquarters in Quartier Kiwele, at the heart of the copper and cobalt belt.

Milestones

From think tank to national voice.

  1. 2016

    Begins as an informal think tank of Congolese extractive-sector practitioners.

  2. 2018

    Formally established in Lubumbashi by three alumni of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program.

  3. 2023

    Launches the Kipushi campaign for women farmers affected by the climate crisis.

  4. 2024

    Assesses the DRC’s governance against the Africa Mining Vision for the African Minerals Development Centre.

  5. 2025

    Calls, with AFREWATCH, for an independent audit of the Mining Fund for Future Generations; publishes the Manono socio-economic baseline.

  6. 2026

    Convenes the civil-society consultations behind the DRC’s national strategic-minerals strategy, from Bunia to Kinshasa.

On The Platform

Leading due diligence on the ground

La Sentinelle leads local coordination of the Energy Transition Minerals project: training stakeholders, disseminating innovations and feeding field insight back into the system.

Discover the projectContact La Sentinelle