Governments have a crucial role to play in distributing wealth from extractive industries

Governments throughout Africa have a crucial role to play in ensuring that the wealth created by extractive industries benefit its people as a whole, according to the members of academia, churches, civil society and individuals that attended the Just World Conference hosted by the Bench Marks Foundation this week.

The conference, hosted by the Foundation, in collaboration with the Norwegian Church Aid and FK Norway, aims to share and gain more knowledge about ownership of natural resources and the effects of extractive industries.

“Throughout the two-day conference, delegates from all over Africa and Europe, were encouraged to workshop issues and come up with a strategy to be used in concrete policy advocacy,” says John Capel, Executive Director of the Bench Marks Foundation.

“Questions such as what kind of policies are needed to ensure that natural resources come to benefit the community? What can be learnt from the different experiences and models of ownership? And what can we and communities do to ensure that governments and corporations address the negative economic, social and environmental impacts of extractive industries and that relevant laws and regulations are effectively enforced.”

Capel said that after much debate, the following resolution containing demands on Government were agreed upon by all and will feed into ongoing initiatives to address and campaign against the different forms of injustices in the sector.

“We, the civil society organisations, academia, church leaders, community members and individuals at this conference demand that governments in Africa:

• take clear action on promoting diversification and beneficiation to ensure that the maximum value is retained in their country;
• must facilitate local economic development and put conditions on incoming investment to ensure that the operations create linkages to the rest of the economy and that local skills levels are improved. This should also be made applicable to existing contracts through renegotiation;
• must strengthen the legal frameworks and monitor compliance with legislation concerning environmental management, to hold corporations to account for environmental damages;
• must ensure that local communities receive reparation and redress from corporations that violate their economic, social or environmental rights as the governments have responsibility to protect their people. National compensation funds should be set up for this purpose;
• and, in their standards for reparation and compensation, recognize and address the plight of women in rural communities who are deprived of land, livelihoods, and are not paid for their labour;
• must ensure effective revenue and redistribution policies for the benefits that accrue from extractive industries, especially for the directly affected communities, and ensure that communities participate in defining how the benefits are distributed;
• work towards regional policy harmonization to avoid a race to the bottom scenario, especially in the area of a common minimum tax framework;
• must improve the implementation and enforcement of existing policies, laws and regulations;
• develop policies that aim towards a green and sustainable economy and moves away from the current reliance on extractive industries;
• must respect the rights of workers and communities to demonstrate, strike or protest;
• must respect the rights and dignity of workers such as better living conditions, wages etc;
• must ensure that the communities have the right to say no to mining, and choose their own development path;
• make sure that there are sufficient, meaningful consultations with local communities before, during exploitation and at phase-out/completion of their operations. In addition, the principle of Free and Prior Informed Consent must be employed that communities may decide that certain mining projects are not sustainable or feasible and not be allowed;
• must ensure free access to information for both communities and civil society, independent social and human rights impact assessments that guarantee Free Prior Informed Consent, effective remedies ensuring public participation; and
• must address the ills of contract and migrant labour on the mines, which undermines livelihoods and social lives of members and families in local or host communities and labour sending communities.” 

Capel pointed out that governments have the power to ensure that responsible extraction is implemented.

“We have clearly seen not just in South Africa, but Sudan, Tanzania, DR Congo, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe that wherever mining has taken place, social and environmental destruction takes place.

“Failure of governments to actively implement regulations and hold corporations accountable ends with communities suffering and usually ends in violence and in some cases, deaths”.

To find out more about the conference, please contact Bench Marks on 011 832 1743 or email justworldconference@gmail.com.