African civil society activists met the European Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs, and urged him to ensure that openness and accountability to Africa’s people are at the heart of Europe’s growing energy relationship with Africa.

Members of the Publish What You Pay Africa coalition from Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Ghana and Nigeria met the European Union’s top energy official in the Nigerian capital on Wednesday 10th September, for an open and constructive discussion lasting an hour.

Publish What You Pay Africa is a civil society coalition active in more than 20 African countri

On Friday, April 17th 2009, ECOWAS Ministers of Mines and Industries met in Abuja to adopt the Draft ECOWAS Mining Directive after a two-day meeting of experts from Member States.

The West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF), which includes numerous members of the Publish What You Pay coalition put out the following press statement.

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.

Africa is fast becoming a key supplier of oil to the United States. In a decade, nearly a quarter of all oil supplies will come from the region. As this report argues, despite this “oil boom” ordinary Africans will see no improvements to their lives so long as revenues continue to flow into governments lacking in transparency and accountability. This report addresses two key questions: How can Africa’s oil boom contribute to relieving poverty? What policy changes should be implemented to promote the management and allocation of oil revenues in a way that will benefit ordinary Africans?

“Last week, the first oil tanker left the waters off Kribi, Cameroon, its belly filled with 950,000 barrels of crude and the hopes of millions of Chadians to whom the oil belongs. But fragile are the hopes that the $2 to 6 billion in oil revenues estimated to flow into Chad over the next 30 years will lift people out of poverty.

Op-ed by Director of Global Witness, Simon Taylor.

While oil, gas and minerals are by far the largest sources of state revenue for the world’s poorest nations, these resources, which should help fund development and sustainable economic growth, all too often turn out to be a curse, leading to increased poverty, child malnutrition and civil conflict.

The controversial Chad-Cameroon Oil Development and Pipeline Project was widely seen as a test case for how a country could overcome the “resource curse” by consciously using oil production revenues to reduce poverty. The $4.2 billion project, with its 665-mile pipeline was led by Exxon-Mobile with financing from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.

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Acommunique on the Chad-Cameroon oil and pipeline project and how the situation stands three years on from exploitation.

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The Publish What You Pay (PWYP) coalition is concerned about the current stalemate between the Chadian government and the World Bank following the government’s amendment of Law 001 – the petroleum revenue management law