7 OCTOBER | 15:40 -17:00 | Baobab Hall

From Plans to Practice: South–South Reflections on Implementing National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights

Session partner:

UN Development Programme

Background

Across Africa, momentum is building around National Action Plans (NAPs) on Business and Human Rights, which are increasingly recognised as vital tools for translating the UN Guiding Principles and regional commitments into concrete national policies. Countries are at different stages of this journey, some advancing participatory processes to develop their first NAPs, others finalising adoption, while a few are already grappling with the complex realities of implementation.

These varied trajectories offer a wealth of lessons. Drafting processes have revealed the importance of inclusive consultation, ensuring that workers, communities, women, and vulnerable groups are meaningfully engaged in shaping priorities. Emerging NAPs highlight opportunities to integrate business and human rights into broader governance, development, and human rights frameworks, creating stronger policy coherence. At the same time, early implementation experiences underline persistent challenges: limited financial and institutional resources, fragmented coordination across ministries, insufficient monitoring mechanisms, and the difficulty of holding both state and business actors accountable for commitments made on paper.

Importantly, the experience of countries that have already adopted NAPs shows that adoption is only a first step. Sustaining momentum requires strong political will, effective oversight, and consistent funding to ensure NAPs do not remain aspirational documents. Without these, the risk is that commitments stall at the level of policy rather than delivering tangible benefits for rights-holders.

This session will draw from national experiences across the continent and others to explore common challenges and opportunities. By convening governments, civil society, business, and regional partners, it aims to generate practical insights on how South–South cooperation, peer learning, and regional frameworks can accelerate progress and strengthen the implementation of BHR commitments in Africa.

Key Objectives

To identify strategies for financing, institutionalizing, and monitoring NAP implementation.
To highlight opportunities for South–South learning and peer exchange in strengthening BHR policies.
To generate actionable recommendations for AU, UNDP, OHCHR, NANHRI, and partners to support implementation.

Session Speakers

Julien Ndour

Director of Human Rights, Ministry of Justice, Government of Senegal

Lucius Pendame

Deputy Director of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Malawi Human Rights Commission.

Lucius Pendame has been with the Commission for 18 years. He is a 2015/2016 Human Rights Fellow with UN OHCHR in National Institutions and Regional Mechanisms. Currently he represents the Commission as the Secretariat of the Business and Human Rights National Action Plan Steering and Technical Committees. He has undergone several trainings in the area of human rights including in Business and Human Rights. He is getting well with the processes in the drafting of the Malawi BHR-NAP.

Jovina Jovita Muchunguzi

Focal Person on BHR at Commission for Human Rights and Good Governace, Tanzania

Ms. Jovina Jovita Muchunguzi is an expert in business and human rights, currently serving as a Principal Investigation Officer and Focal Person on BHR at CHRAGG, Tanzania’s NHRI. With 15+ years of experience, she specializes in investigating corporate human rights abuses and has led projects such as the UN Guiding Principles implementation in Sub-Saharan African.
She is the Technical Team Lead & Secretary of the National Steering Committee, developing the Tanzania’s National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP-BHR). Additionally, she leads CHRAGG’s human rights & fisheries initiative in collaboration with DIHR, working on NHRI staff training, research, and stakeholder engagement.
Ms. Muchunguzi has represented CHRAGG in international forums on BHR, corporate accountability, climate change litigation, and sustainable ocean governance for small-scale fisheries. She remains committed to advancing ethical and accountable business conduct globally.

Cláudio Dinis Mate

National Director of Human Rights and Citizenship at Mozambique’s Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs.

With over 23 years of experience as a jurist and diplomat, Cláudio Dinis Mate specializes in international law, human rights, and multilateral cooperation. Dr. Mate has held senior roles within the Ministry of Justice and previously served as a diplomat at the Embassy of Mozambique in Brussels, where he was involved in bilateral and multilateral negotiations covering a range of international organizations.
He holds a Master’s degree in International Politics from the European Center for Strategic International Studies/University of Paris South in Brussels, and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from Eduardo Mondlane University. Dr. Mate has participated in numerous international conferences and negotiations on human rights, trade, and regional integration in over 20 countries, and has contributed to academic training in international law at leading Mozambican universities.
He is fluent in Portuguese and English, with working knowledge of French and Spanish.

Livio Sarandrea

Business and Human Rights Global Policy Advisor, UNDP

Livio Sarandrea, is UNDP’s Global Advisor for Business and Human Rights. He coordinates a team of 40+ experts supporting the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in 28 countries across five continents. Livio is currently based in Bangkok where, since 2016, he has also been managing the program: Business and Human Rights in Asia (B+HR Asia) in support of Governments businesses and civil society actors in the development of National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights, in the conduct of Human Rights Due Diligence and in the use of remedial mechanisms for those whose rights have been abused by companies.

Livio started his international career in Bosnia and Herzegovina where he served from 1997 to 2003 first as Senior Human Rights Officer for the OSCE and from 2001 for the United Nations as Chief of the Bihac Regional Human Rights Office.

From 2003 to 2010 he worked for the OSCE Mission to Serbia as Senior Coordinator for Judicial and Legal Reform and Deputy Head of Rule of Law and Human Rights Department.

Livio Joined UNDP Mozambique in 2011 where he worked as an embedded Chief Technical Adviser in the Ministry of Justice and the National Human Rights Commission. In this function in 2014 he supported the process of drafting a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights for Mozambique.

Livio is from Italy and holds a Law Degree with specialization in International and Criminal Law from La Sapienza University, Rome.