Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) operating in the West African
sub-region say they have made strides at influencing reforms in the mineral
sector of many member countries of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS).
They have been successful, for instance, at influencing the
World Bank’s funding for a number of mining conglomerates operating in the
Western Region of Ghana where allegations of environmental and human rights breaches
have been levelled against companies.
Moussa Ba of Oxfam said on Thursday: “Today, we have
achieved results that are significant,” explaining that NGOs (also referred to
as civil society organisations) successfully lobbied the World Bank to relook
its funding for abusive multinationals.
Moussa Ba was sharing thoughts at a two-day regional strategic
meeting of the West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF) hosted in Accra from February
21 to 22. The meeting, supported by Oxfam, was called to discuss the topic: “Towards an effective implementation of the
ECOWAS Mineral Development Policy (EMDP) and the Development of a Regional
Mining Code.” About 40 persons from
nine countries – including Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso – are in
attendance.
WACSOF documents that through the support of Oxfam it was
able to contribute to the EMDP, ensuring that the document “contains people
oriented provisions.” ECOWAS adopted the EMDP to promote the sub-region’s
extractive industry as well as harmonise the member countries’ mineral
policies.
Apart from that, the work of the WACSOF fraternity has partly
culminated in major legislative reforms in the global north, including new
requirements for companies originating from European and American jurisdictions
to report on their payments to host countries.
These reforms are primarily focused at achieving revenue accountability
and transparency, according to Felix Delhomme, also of Oxfam. He said, however,
that there was a chance for the requirements to be scaled up to include sustainable
environmental practice and these could result from comprehensive and targeted advocacy
by civil society groups. He therefore cautioned against ad hoc advocacy
interventions since these do not lead to lasting outcomes.
I think the talk on transparency and accountability need to move on to financial justice and more. 3% of total production as royalties is woefully inadequate to promote economic growth in a country such as Ghana. what about the social, health and environmental cost which are always externalized and brushed away. What about the pittance paid as compensation to farmers for a perpetual loss of their livelihood which which has rippling effects on their dependents.
ReplyDeletewhen the royalties are further broken down eventually only miniscule faction of a small fraction of a small fraction of 3% eventually gets to communities where resources were extracted. Communities don't feel the touted positive impact of mining. Our President says he is 'putting people first'. What does that mean in terms of the many farmers who are being driven away from their lands due to overgenerous contracts that governments continue to grant to multinationals?
CSOs need to swim out of the pools of transparent in to the bigger ocean and really bring change.