CIVIL SOCIETY AND EITI IMPLEMENTATION IN GHANA

1
CIVIL SOCIETY AND EITI IMPLEMENTATION IN GHANA

• Dialogue, Critical and Constructive Engagement

2
The Road So Far Traversed

• CSOs in Ghana have been partners in the EITI
  tri-partite arrangement since the inception of
  the initiative in Ghana
• Partnered the other stakeholders in a massive
  sensitization drive, following launch of the
  initiative
• Made input into the design, finalization, and
  adoption of templates
• Made input into the drawing of the Ghana work
  programme
• Contributed to the drafting of the Aggregators
  ToR
• Took part in the selection and interview of EITI
  aggregator
• Been part of all other implementation activities,
  including discussions around audit reports

3
The CSO Framework for Engaging in GHEITI

• Civil society participation had been marginal
  from the onset. ISODEC was the only organisation
  that was engaged in the process, serving on the
  National Steering Committee (Nominated by
  GAPVOD).
• In Nov. 2004 ISODEC convenes a roundtable meeting
  of organised civil society stakeholders, aimed at
  broadening civil society participation in the
  EITI process. The meeting provided a platform for
  the adoption of a framework for civil society
  engagement.
• Today, ISODEC represents a 20-member coalition of
  civil society organisations, including
  faith-based organisations and organised labour
  working under the banner of PWYP-Ghana.

4
The CSO Framework for Engaging in GHEITI (Contd.)

• The Publish What You Pay-Ghana Campaign is part
  of a wider global campaign for transparency in
  extractive sector revenues, with the broad
  objectives of
• Mobilising civil society to engage with other
  stakeholders in the implementation and monitoring
  of the EITI process.
• Promoting budget/revenue transparency at the
  community level, through grass root participation
  in budget/revenue tracking.
• Eliminating corruption and revenue leakages in
  the extractive sector.
• Ensuring that the extractive sector contributes
  positively to national development and poverty
  reduction, especially in communities immediately
  affected by extractive sector activities.

5
The Genesis of PWYP-Ghana

• The formal launch of PWYP-Ghana was in 2006,
  after two years of existence. The launch was
  preceded by mobilization and sensitization
  durbars in the four major mining enclaves in
  Ghana, namely, Western, Eastern, Ashanti, and
  Ahafo.
• The community mobilization efforts were followed
  with a strategic planning meeting which brought
  together 50 signed up members of the coalition to
  formulate an engagement strategy and action plan
  for 2006-7. Having adopted the plan of action,
  the Campaign was officially launched in Accra.
• The challenge at the time was to organize the
  citizenry of the four major mining enclaves,
  incorporate them into the PWYP campaign, and
  deepen their understanding of the essence of the
  EITI initiative, and their role in realizing the
  laudable goals of the initiative.

6
Capacity Building Initiatives

• Following the launch of the coalition, we
  embarked on a capacity-building drive. Our first
  training workshop took place in Akim Oda in
  November 2006. It was attended by 40 community
  members drawn from the New Abirem concession area
  of Newmont, representatives of the PWYP-Ghana
  Steering Committee, representative of the
  traditional authority of the Akim Kotoku area,
  representative of the District Assembly, the
  Coordinator of the national Multi stakeholder
  Committee on EITI in Ghana, reps of GTZ, and
  Newmont.
• Topics treated at the workshop included the
  Dichotomy of Mining and Development, the Legal
  and Regulatory Framework of the Mining Sector
  i.e. contracts, environmental impact assessment,
  social responsibility agreements etc. It also
  explored the mining sector revenue streams and
  their disbursements. The principles and criteria
  of the Extractive Industry Transparency
  Initiative were also discussed.

7
Capacity Building Initiatives (Contd.)

• The second took place from 11 13 January 2007
  at Obuasi.
• At the time, the Multi stakeholder Committee on
  EITI was planning a national conference on EITI
  implementation in Ghana for January 15, 2007 and
  there was an urgent need to collate and firm-up
  civil society demands and expectations of the
  EITI process in Ghana.
• The Workshop was on the theme Making Mineral
  Revenue Work for the Poor. It was attended by 60
  participants drawn mainly from in and around the
  Oboasi Community, the PWYP-Ghana Steering
  Committee, and four regional focal persons of the
  Campaign. It was also attended by the Amansie
  West District Finance Officer, the Community
  Relations Officer of AngloGold Ashanti, and a
  representative of the President of the Adansi
  Traditional Council. Other participants were a
  6-member delegation from Mongolia, who were then
  in the country to learn from Ghanas civil
  society experience with the EITI. PWYP-Ghana also
  sponsored a 2-member delegation from Sierra Leone
  to the event as part of its networking and for
  the purpose of cross fertilization of ideas.

8
Capacity Building Initiatives (Contd.)

• The workshop looked at the issues of Mining and
  Development, focusing on the legal and regulatory
  framework of the mining sector i.e. contracts,
  environmental impact assessment, social
  responsibility agreements etc. It also took an
  overview of the mining sector revenue streams and
  their disbursements.
• Participants were then taken through the
  Principles, Criteria, and Validation Process of
  EITI the Role of Civil Society in the EITI
  Process the Monitoring Framework for Effective
  Engagement (Budgets / Revenue Tracking).
  Participants had the opportunity to discuss the
  EITI reporting templates, particularly the
  sub-national template and how to engage with it.
• The workshop again, provided the opportunity to
  discuss and formulate a civil society response to
  Ghanas EITI Inception Report, which was then in
  its draft stage as well as collate and firm-up a
  set of civil society demands on the Ghana
  process.

9
National Multi-stakeholder Conference

• GHEITI held its first National Conference on EITI
  on January 15, 2007.
• PWYP-Ghana sponsored 8 community members drawn
  from the four mining enclaves to the conference.
• It was an opportunity to re-state the PWYP-Ghana
  demands on EITI which were to bring on board all
  other legitimate concerns not captured in the
  current framework, including other dimensions of
  transparency, such as contracts, policy
  formulation, regulatory regime, social and
  environmental costs and compensation, and also
  seek to bring on board other extractive sector
  activities.
• The demands also included the call to pursue EITI
  within the context of a broader range of
  complementary reform initiatives including
• Reviewing the existing mining law to make it
  consistent with the transparency requirements of
  EITI.
• Formulating in the shortest possible time, a
  mining policy for the mineral sector. .
• Passing the Right to information bill.
• Providing civil liberty guarantees, especially
  for civil society activists.
• Legislating the initiative to make disclosures
  mandatory.

10
Other Zonal Workshops

• The Oboasi community-based workshop was
  replicated in the Western regional mining enclave
  - Tarkwa (February 22 24, 2007), and the Ahafo
  mining enclave - Sunyani (March 15 18, 2007).
  All the workshops were given good coverage in the
  local as well as national electronic and print
  media.

11
Communities Concerns

• In general, discussions at the workshops centred
  on the relationship between mining companies and
  the communities in which they operate. In
  particular, issues of crop compensation, lack of
  transparency in the disbursement of mineral
  royalties from the Office of the Administrator of
  Stool Lands, environmental cost and compensation,
  livelihood insecurity, and human right abuses
  perpetrated by mining companies, working in
  tandem with state security agencies were the most
  nagging concerns.

12
Meeting With the World Bank

• On January 18, 2007 GTZ hosted a meeting between
  World Bank Officials, including the Banks EITI
  consultant Sefton Darby, and PWYP-Ghana. The
  meeting was at the instance of the Bank and had
  the purpose of obtaining a feedback from the
  civil society mobilization events and workshops
  as well as sharing the civil society perspective
  on the EITI process so far. Discussions also
  focused on constraints civil society was facing
  with the EITI process and the management of the
  mining sector in general.
• PWYP-Ghana seized the opportunity to re-affirm
  its demands on the process, as well as other
  concerns of the communities which fall outside
  the remit of EITI.

13
Engagements Around EITI Reports

• Following the conclusion of the first Ghana EITI
  report in February 2007, PWYP-Ghana commissioned
  an expert in the U.K. to undertake a technical
  review of the report, which is subsequently
  referred to as the Murphy Critique.
• Following the submission of the Murphy Critique,
  a civil society technical roundtable was
  organized to discuss the Ghana EITI report, with
  the Murphy Critique serving as a reference
  document. The roundtable drew participation from
  the membership of the PWYP-Ghana coalition,
  private legal practitioners, geologists from
  academia, representatives of gender and
  faith-based organizations.
• The meeting provided the platform for
  formulating a civil society response to the first
  Ghana report, which was submitted at a national
  stakeholder workshop on the report organized on
  April 3, 2007.

14
IMPACT OF OUR ACTIVITIES

• The cumulative outcome of our intervention has
  been an increased awareness and a galvanized
  community support for EITI implementation in
  Ghana.
• PWYP-Ghana has developed a draft Social and
  Environmental Template for capturing social and
  environmental impacts of mining, as well as
  others for capturing revenue flows to the
  districts. Community groups have been trained in
  the use of these tools which are soon to be
  deployed.

15
Our Perspectives on the Usefulness of EITI

• EITI remains an incomplete balance sheet, but
  presents opportunities for addressing some
  revenue management and utilization concerns
• Promoted stakeholder dialogue
• Help in adopting a consensus building approach to
  extractive sector policy initiatives
• For instance we have achieve consensus on
  extending EITI to other natural resource sectors,
  and also to revise the Aggregators Terms of
  Reference to make the exercise more meaningful
  than it has so far been.

16
Challenges

• How to bring on other sectors such as forestry,
  oil, and fisheries
• The need to expand the MSG while ensuring that it
  does not become unwieldy
• The need to address the potential for role
  conflict among secretariat staff, and to secure
  the independence of the MSG
• How to ensure the sustainability of the
  initiative
• THANK YOU for your attention