If the people know, risks to tax evasion, elite capture, corruption and the resource curse are reduced.

 

Transparency and Accountability are the strongest pillars for good development governance.  These facilitate citizen participation, investment attraction and effective use of extractive resources for sustainable development. Over the years, the lack of these were a major cause of elite capture, corruption, tax evasion and exacerbated the resource curse. Corruption was rampant, mining companies evaded taxes, contracts were undisclosed, revenues were spent without public scrutiny and communities evicted without fair compensation and justice

Tanzania is a signatory and  member to global transparency and accountability standards such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Tanzania has enacted  some of these principles into a national law,  the Tanzania Extractive Industries Act (TEITA) 2015. The country has established in law, a Multistakeholder body (comprising of government, civil society and companies), as platform for continuous consultation and mutual accountability. However there are deficits on some frontiers of transparency such as not publishing yet signed extractive contracts. Expanding the transparency and accountability space for continuous civil society and community engagement is still critical.

At a regional level transparency and accountability in the extractive sector is key for countries to realise maximum benefits.  Tanzania’s milestones on transparency  partly inspired it East African neighbor  Uganda, to sign up to the global Extractive Industries Transparence Initiative (EITI). The EITI is a global benchmark for transparence in the oil, gas and minerals. By becoming a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), countries commit to disclose information along the extractive industry value chain – from how extraction rights are awarded, to how revenues make their way through government and how they benefit the public. The EITI membership therefore provides a new opportunity for Uganda in expanding its transparency frontier  and thus expanding its citizens participation and attraction of largescale investment into its nascent but prospective extractive sector. For now, citizens awareness and participation is still limited and the sector could easily suffer political and elite capture.

This project therefore seeks to help  governments improve their transparency standards in policy and practice, enabling citizens to be more aware and to participate in the oversight of the extractive sector via;

  • Analytical pieces on extractive Transparency and Accountability
  • Local and International Advocacy for Transparency, accountability and economic justice
  • Training and convenings for stakeholders

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