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Revenues from oil should spur economic growth and social development in developing countries. In many resource-rich countries in Africa, however, the lack of accountability and transparency in the management of these revenues exacerbates poor governance and often fuels cycles of corruption, conflict, and poverty. As the international community seeks alternatives to Middle Eastern oil and new reserves enter production, Africa’s oil revenues will multiply over the coming decade. A number of analysts believe that economies overly dependent on oil wealth encourage authoritarian rather than democratic forms of governance.
To meet this challenge, civic groups, government reformers and representatives of the international community are increasingly pushing for more accountability and fiscal transparency in a number of sub-Saharan African countries. These reformist groups need specialized tools and knowledge to guard against increased corruption in resource-rich democratic states and to fight authoritarian regimes seeking to further consolidate their power. Effective transparency initiatives must foster cooperation beyond governments and multinational corporations to include the participation of legislative bodies, political parties, civic organizations and the media.
Current Activities
NDI began its programming in the area of extractive industry (EI) governance in 2005 with research producing its nine-country survey report, Transparency and Accountability in Africa’s Extractive Industries: The Role of the Legislature. The report identified a lack of resources, institutional and structural constraints as the principal stumbling blocks for effective legislative engagement of this key sector. These obstacles prevent the legislature from effectively checking executive branch decision making related to the governance and management of the extractive industries.
Based on the findings and recommendations of the aforementioned report, NDI initiated two pilot programs funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in East Africa and Zambia. Regionally focused, NDI’s key partner in East Africa is the Inter-Parliamentarian Relations Liaison Committee on Natural Resources (IPRLC). Its membership involves regional MPs from the East African Legislative Assembly’s (EALA) natural resource committee, and one MP from each East African Community (EAC) partner state, serving on a mining and oil committee.
Extractive Industries in East Africa
In 2008, the Institute assisted EALA to draft an extractive industry (EI) resolution and establish the IPRLC to implement the resolution. Adopted in May 2008, the resolution contains 21 recommendations designed to assist the five EAC partner states to improve industry governance and management.
From 2008 to 2010, NDI assisted the IPRLC to implement key recommendations focused on oversight and legal analysis. Specifically, the IPRLC conducted site visits to gold and diamond mines and an oil site in Tanzania and Uganda respectively, to identify shortcomings in the governance and management of both industries. The IPRLC used the findings from the site visits to produce regional and country-specific recommendations to address the identified shortcomings. The recommendations were shared with the parliaments of Tanzania and Uganda.
In the area of legal analysis, NDI organized a workshop facilitated by legislative, legal and industry experts including sitting Tanzanian members of parliament (MPs), who guided the IPRLC through the governance and fiscal framework of Tanzania’s 1998 and 2010 Mining Acts. The workshop discussed best practices in mining governance and also provided comparative examples of model mining legislation in Africa.
Through these activities the IPRLC has utilized its position in the region to influence parliaments at the state level to play a more active role in the governance of the extractive sector. For example, the IPRLC’s site visit to Tanzania, and the subsequent recommendations from it motivated the Tanzania Energy and Minerals Committee to undertake a site visit to gold mines in the Northeastern region of Tanzania. Historically, in conducting oversight of the mining sector, the committee does not typically conduct site visits to mines to monitor government’s implementation of mining policy.
In 2011, with follow on funding from the NED, NDI will support the IPRLC to undertake a review of Uganda’s and Rwanda’s natural gas oil legislation respectively. The IPRLC’s review of Tanzania’s mining legislation in 2010 and the legal analysis to be undertaken in 2011, will inform the eventual development of regional standards and benchmarks, such as model legislation, model contracts and corporate social responsibility standards that can be help improve EI governance at the national level.
