CSOs endorse renegotiation of mining contracts

Dr. Yao Graham, Coordinator of Third World Network-Africa (TWN), has endorsed efforts by African leaders to renegotiate mining contracts, saying it will enhance transparency of revenue flows in the sector.

“The realisation by the continent that national development benefits of mining are not enough has led to a shift that sees emerging patterns of policy change in African mining countries,” he said.

Government last year began a mining industry review to boost fiscal revenues and improve the flow of benefits from the industry to mining communities.

The review included payment of mining royalties from the current quarterly period to monthly, as well as an increase in the industry’s corporate tax rate from 25 percent to 35 percent.

It will also push for an increase in royalties paid by mining companies. In March 2010,

Government increased the country's mineral royalties from 3 percent to 5 percent.

Dr. Graham was speaking in Accra at a two-day capacity building workshop on the continental Africa Mining Vision (AMV) and the related ECOWAS Minerals Development Policy (EMDP).

The workshop was organised by TWN-Africa with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA). It brought together over 40 representatives from civil society organisations (CSOs), labour unions, women’s organisations, the media and other stakeholders.

It was designed to expand and deepen participants’ understanding of the AMV and EMDP’s objectives and their implications.

It was  also to support engagement with ECOWAS to harmonise the goals of the AMV, the EMDP and the envisioned harmonised regional mining code, as well as to strengthen collaboration and networking among a diversified range of non-state actors and organisations for advocacy on the AMV and EMDP.

The top agenda of the AMV is the creation of circumstanes that support a “transparent, equitable and optimal exploitation of Africa’s mineral resources to underpin broad-based sustainable growth and socio-economic development”.

The AMV, in effect, proposes a paradigm-shift away from a model of extractive resource exploitation based on a high dependency on international export markets that has proven incapable of delivering socio-economic development to Africa.

Through targetted policy reforms, the AMV seeks to address the structural flaws of a model inherited from the colonial era, characterised by the “enclaved, mono-sectoral nature of mining activities, and the weakened institutional capacity and profoundly asymmetrical relations between the negotiating capacity of Governments and companies.”

The AMV and EMDP exemplify the growing convergence between the positions of critical voices in African society and new official policy directions. The convergence is partially expressed in the AMV and EMDP policymaking processes.

The role of CSOs in these processes has grown over time. For example, CSOs had a strong voice in the 2011 AU Ministerial Meeting that approved the AMV Action Plan.

Among other specific topics discussed at the workshop were included essential tenets of the mining reform agenda; its challenges and proposed remedies for realising the AMV and EMDP; mining and economic transformation and the role of the state; and how ongoing reforms address labour as well as human rights concerns; and artisanal miners’ and communities’ issues.