PWYP story

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The Zimbabwe Chapter of the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) campaign was launched in Harare on the 26th of August 2011 at an event organized by the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) with support from the Southern Africa Resources Watch (SARW) and the Publish What You Pay Africa Secretariat.

On 10 June 2011 a wide range of civil society organisations gathered in Melbourne for a PWYP information and strategy development workshop. Hosted by long time PWYP member Oxfam Australia, sessions included an introduction to PWYP, examination of national coalition case studies and a strategy brainstorm for the future of the campaign in Australia. The day closed with a real sense of momentum in the quest for greater openness in the oil and mining sector in Australia.

Currently, the campaign in Australia is developing across two very exciting fronts.

PWYP members in Europe have written to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates US stock exchanges, and notified the body that the European Commission is developing counterpart legislation in Europe. The need for extractive industry transparency rules in the EU has been backed by the British and French governments which have both publicly stated their support this year following the passing in the United States of the Dodd-Frank Act.

I am Chairperson of Publish What You Pay Uganda and work for an organisation called Global Rights Alert. In Uganda we are striving to ensure that the recently discovered oil in our country helps us fight poverty, disease and develop economically.

The campaign for PWYP stock exchange listing requirements is gathering pace in the UK. Last week the founder of the Open Society Foundations, George Soros, spoke to a senior gathering of UK MPs and Peers at a reception in the House of Commons about the importance of oil and mining transparency. Mr Soros has been a key supporter of the Publish What You Pay coalition since 2002.

In his address to the UN summit on the millennium development goals last night, President Obama highlighted the new US law requiring all oil, gas, and mining companies registered in the US to reveal all payments they make to governments around the world:

“We know that countries are more likely to prosper when governments are accountable to their people. So we are leading a global effort to combat corruption—which in many places is the single greatest barrier to prosperity, and which is a profound violation of human rights. That’s why we now require oil, gas and mining companies that raise capital in the United States to disclose all payments they make to foreign governments. And it’s why I urged the G-20 to put corruption on its agenda and make it harder for corrupt officials to steal from their people and stifle their development.“

Other countries must now follow suit to unlock billions of dollars in natural resource revenues so they can be used for sustainable growth.

This week Norway, the first OECD country to implement the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), took an important step by publicly releasing its first EITI report disclosing all payments of taxes and fees made by oil companies to the government in 2008.

PWYP Norway coordinator Mona Thowsen congratulated Norway at the launch event and encouraged “all resource rich countries, including other OECD countries to engage meaningfully in the EITI tripartite process…”

Transparency in the extractive industries was very much on the agenda in Washington DC during the week 11-15 May. The World Bank and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) held sessions on sub-national implementation of EITI and working with civil society to ensure EITI is implemented successfully.

14-15 May saw the convening of the 9th EITI Board which accepted Albania, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Zambia as EITI Candidate countries.

PWYP member the Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) held its own event on how transit revenues could potentially be included in the framework of EITI. RWI followed events closely and posted regular updates here, including contributions from EITI board member Anthony Richter who was busy blogging on how the week unfolded.

Several Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have launched a petition against corruption. The petition calls for the European Commission and EU Member States to propose legislation and mechanisms to fight corruption, in particular in EU relations with third countries.

Publish What You Pay (PWYP) is pleased to see that of its five substantive points, the petition lists actions on transparency and revenue disclosure in the extractive industries.