WASHINGTON, Sep 25 (OneWorld) – It’s time to shed light on the way U.S. companies in charge of oil, gas, and mining operations in developing countries are spending their money, according to testimony at two Capitol Hill hearings Wednesday.

Many countries with vast oil and mineral wealth experience a “resource curse,” because “competition for control of these resources has more often fuelled corruption and inequality than growth and development,” said Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, speaking at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Africa Subcommittee.

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Ghana discovers oil, and has an opportunity to use it for development—if it can avoid the usual traps of new oil wealth in developing countries.

PWYP coalitions from across Africa met in Abuja for the PWYP 2008 Africa Regional Meeting which took place from 8–10 September. The meeting was hosted by PWYP Nigeria and aimed to review campaign strategies and strengthen the capacity of civil society to effectively advocate for transparency and accountability in the management of extractive resources in Africa.

At the end of the PWYP African regional meeting, which took place at Limbe on March 2007, a regional action plan was approved by the PWYP coalitions throughout Africa.

In order to further develop, improve and implement some sections of the action plan, the members of the PWYP campaign in Africa agreed to meet in Libreville, Gabon, from 27 to 29 June 2007 after an EITI training organized by the World Bank mostly for French-speaking countries in Africa.

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The National Advocacy Coalition on Extractives (NACE) a civil society coalition with a membership of fifteen organizations active across the country has been immersed in a three days workshop geared towards increasing its capacity and contextualizing the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) process in a bid to make it relevant to our situation.

Adopted at a public forum on EITI in freetown

We, representatives of citizens groups in Sierra Leone, organized under the banner of the National Advocacy Coalition on Extractives (NACE), meeting at a public forum organized at our instance, with the support of DFID, on September 23, 2006 at Hotel Cabenda, Freetown;

On 12/07/07, Sao Tomean civil society welcomed the publication of news reporting that the São Tomean government was about to adhere to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

This is a letter from the NGO coaliton “Oil Revenues – Under Public Oversight” in Kazakhstan to the EBRD President regarding its support for the extractive industries in the country and its endorsement of the EITI.