We, representatives of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) francophone African coalitions meeting in Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) from 29 January to 2 February 2010 at the PWYP Africa Francophone Workshop on the theme of “Strengthening the PWYP campaign and advocacy for greater transparency and accountability in the management of natural resources in Francophone Africa”:

We, members of Publish What You Pay (PWYP)* Africa, thank the Catholic Church for its commitment to promote the equitable management of natural resource wealth in Africa.

We commend the Church for continuing to place the issue of the resource curse and its repercussions at the centre of its discussions and deliberations on Africa.

We are representatives of Southern African civil society organisations that are members of the Publish What You Pay (PWYP)* global coalition, which campaigns for the transparent and accountable management of oil, gas and mining revenues. We welcome the recent Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Heads of State Summit in Kinshasa, and we congratulate the Democratic Republic of Congo on being granted chairmanship of the SADC for a year.

The SADC region has abundant mineral resources which can assist in accelerating the economic and social development and growth of the region.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Clinton,

Publish What You Pay (PWYP), the international civil society coalition for transparency and accountability in the extractive industries, is writing to draw your attention to the continued harassment of transparency and anticorruption advocates in Africa and the need for African governments to respect their commitments to encourage public debate on these issues.

An international delegation comprised of Michel Roy (PWYP France), Michel Saraka (Economic Governance Program Manager, OSIWA), Evelyne Tsague (RWI Deputy Coordinator for Africa), and Marie-Ange Kalenga (PWYP Africa Coordinator) traveled to Niger last week to attend a multistakeholder Forum on Extractives Industries.

The Forum, which was organised by ROTAB/PWYP Niger¹ in Niamey from 13-15 July, aimed to step up dialogue and collaboration between various stakeholders to advance revenue transparency so that the country’s mining wealth benefits all Nigerien citizens.

London: Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Gabon Coordinator Marc Ona Essangui has won the prestigious international Goldman Environmental Prize, which is often awarded to individuals who take significant personal risks to protect the environment and local communities.

Sarkozy in Africa

On the occasion of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s two-day tour of Africa on 26-27 March 2009, PWYP Africa and PWYP France have called on the French leader to ensure France does more to increase transparency, enable a fairer sharing of resources between companies and producing countries, and to respect its commitment to accountability in the management of natural resource revenues.

The French President is visiting the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo-Brazzaville, and Niger

While addressing political and civil authorities in Angola last Friday Pope Benedict XVI stated that the Publish What You Pay coalition merits support, along with other initiatives including the Kimberly Process and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

During his inaugural tour of Africa, which took in Angola and Cameroon on 17-23 March 2009, the Pope made ending corruption and promoting transparency and good governance a recurring theme.