NGOs in Mozambique Launch "Publish What You Pay" Coalition

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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On November 28, 2008, in Maputo, Mozambique, a group of civil society organizations launched a national "Publish What You Pay" coalition to monitor development and government policies in the extractives industries. The coalition was formed under the auspices of G20, the Civil Society Platform for the Monitoring of Development.

Mozambique's Publish What You Pay (PWYP) coalition is composed of organizations that work on research, advocacy, and monitoring of socio-economic development, the environment and natural resources, budget transparency and anti-corruption. The groups are based both in Maputo and across the provinces where prospecting and exploitation of natural resources occurs, including Inhambane, Tete, Zambezia, Nampula, and Cabo Delgado. 

The coalition launches as the government moves ahead with plans for Mozambique to join the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). The EITI is an international program that seeks to guarantee transparency in transactions between extractive industries companies and governments, in order to make clear what these industries pay the government (in royalties, taxes, and other payments), what payments the government reports having received, and what revenues are actually used by the government in public expenditures for the benefit of the nation.

The launch of the coalition comes at a time when many resource-rich countries have confirmed serious discrepancies between the payments that extractive industries report making to governments and the revenue those governments report receiving and using in their budgets. This difference is frequently due to corruption in one or both of the parties.

Civil society organizations in Mozambique praise and welcome the government of Mozambique's promise to adhere to the EITI.  The coalition and its allies join together in the knowledge that mineral resources are not renewable and their exploitation has serious impact on Mozambique's prospects for long-term development, and on the constitutional guarantee that these resources belong to the state. These organizations reaffirm that transparent and detailed  information, made available in a timely manner, is crucial for citizens' capacity to knowledgably participate in the effective management of the nation's non-renewable resources.   
Mozambique's PWYP coalition also declares that the EITI in Mozambique should go beyond transparency to include other fundamental objectives, specifically:  

• Guaranteeing that the extractive industries generate public income for the creation of reserves and the promotion of broad, diversified development, to account for the fact that mineral resources are not renewable. Such reserves and development will help free Mozambique from external dependence in the near future and create new and better development opportunities for future generations.  
• Promoting productive linkages both upstream and downstream.
• Guaranteeing decent and dignified employment, specifically with regard to salary levels, safety and workplace conditions, social support packages for workers and their families, job training, collective bargaining agreements, and respect for the right of workers to join together to defend their interests.   
• Assuring the constant protection and restoration of the environment, to assure improved quality of life and sustainable development opportunities for all, now and in the future.    
• Overcoming possible conflicts between different uses of natural resources, for instance between mineral exploitation and agriculture/tourism/fishing, taking into account opportunity costs and relative benefits for the nation and for communities choosing between the extractive industries and other alternatives.

An EITI coordinating committee will be created shortly in Mozambique, composed of representatives of the government, the extractive industries, and civil society. The civil society members will develop support teams for the investigation, gathering, processing, and analysis of information, as well as for analysis and discussion of options according to their aspirations and interests. 

The coalition is an informal network organization and not a new organization. It is open to any other interested groups in Mozambique.  More details about the coalition's activities during in 2009 will be announced after the group concludes the plan of activities, now being prepared.

Institute of Social and Economic Studies

Mocambique Debt Group

Biological Agruculture, Biodiversity, and Sustainable Development

Center for Public Integrity: Good Governance – Transparency – Integrity

Environmental Justice (see listing on: Friends of the Earth International)