On 19 January 2010 the BBC’s The World Tonight radio programme featured a section on the resource curse. Radhika Sarin, PWYP International Coordinator and Emmanuel Kuyole, RWI Africa Regional Coordinator were both interviewed.

Click 'play' to listen.

The PWYP Team would like to share with you the news that the Gilbert Maoundonodji has been named as one of Africa’s “100 personalities to impact 2010” by the weekly news magazine Jeune Afrique. Gilbert is a member of the Publish What You Pay/Publish What You Earn coalition in Chad. He is also a civil society representative on the international Board of the EITI.

Congratulations Gilbert!

Below is the write-up translated into English.

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L‘équipe de PCQVP souhaite vous informer que Gilbert Maoundonodji a été désigné l’une des « 100 personnalités qui feront 2010 » en Afrique par l’hebdomadaire Jeune Afrique Magazine. Gilbert est membre de la coalition tchadienne Publiez Ce Que Vous Payez/Publiez Ce Que Vous Gagnez. Il est également un des représentants de la société civile au sein du Conseil international de l’ITIE.

Félicitations Gilbert!

Vous trouverez l’article ci-dessous.

U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), and Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) have just released a video promoting transparency in the energy sector. The video includes U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, and experts Ian Gary, senior policy advisor for extractive industries with PWYP member Oxfam America, and Jonas Moberg, head of secretariat at EITI, speaking about how transparency in oil, gas and mining can empower citizens to hold governments accountable and gain benefit from their countries’ natural resource wealth.

The PWYP International Conference last month was attended by accredited media from the press, television and radio. This included journalists from Radio Canada International, the Aboriginal People’s Television Channel, AfriqueCanada.tv and The Canadian Press Agency.

We are collecting together articles and interviews conducted and generated as a result of the conference. They are availabe here: http://www.publishwhatyoupay.org/en/resources/media-coverage-pwyp-intern...

A new report from International Alert which examines the potential of Uganda’s newly discovered oil reserves and recommends increased transparency and principled leadership to promote broad economic opportunities of oil discovery for peace and development in Uganda.

This discovery of oil, taking place within a context of a variety of tensions that exist on both sides of the DRC-Uganda border, represents a potential risk of conflict and presents a peacebuilding challenge for local communities, the government, priva

Marie-Ange Kalenga

EN

Rotab/PWYP Niger member Wada Maman was provisionally released yesterday evening but still faces charges of “participation in an unauthorized demonstration”, “damage to public buildings” and “destruction of private property”. Maman was arrested on 22 August by the Republican Guard in Niamey following a series of arrests of civil society activists in the wake of the deteriorating human rights and political situation in Niger.

Information on the PWYP International Conference taking place from November 16 – 18, 2009 in Montreal, Canada is now available on our website. You can also download a draft agenda and guidelines for participation.

http://www.publishwhatyoupay.org/en/MontrealConference

PWYP Uganda’s coordinating organisation the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO) has issued a newsletter covering events and activities during the first quarter of 2009. A major component of AFIEGO’s work is its Extractive Industries Governance Programme for which it has carried out numerous activities this year with many more on the horizon.

More…

The Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin is seeking a highly motivated professional for the position of Project Coordinator/Senior Project Coordinator: Promoting Revenue Transparency Project.

Fidan Bagirova

In recent weeks the Azerbaijani public has witnessed the start of a “new stage” of contract signing in the country. The previous tradition of a relatively open contract process has been replaced with a “new” process. Azerbaijani civil society had become accustomed to learning about signed Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs) right at the start of the process and was generally informed of when contract signing ceremonies would take place. However, recently two PSAs have been signed behind closed doors and the public only got wind of these deals 4 months later when the contracts were submitted to Parliament for ratification.