Sierra Leone: Strengthening Civil Society Capacity in the EITI Process

In 2006, with the support of the World Bank's Development Grant Facility and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, RWI provided funding to the National Advocacy Coalition on the Extractives (NACE) in Sierra Leone to co-organize a monitoring trip by a joint PWYP coalition, parliamentarians, and Ministry of Mines and development representatives to assess the critical issues in the main mining region. It was determined that both civil society and parliamentarians had very weak capacity in this area.

The project aimed to educate civil society in Sierra Leone on the principles of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and how they ensure accountable and responsible natural resource exploitation and revenue management on the part of governments and mining companies. The project also sought to build the interest and capacity of civil society groups, especially at the community level, around transparent and participatory management of public resources, through a series of trainings, regional exchanges, and research and advocacy projects. RWI was pleased to support NACE so that they could continue the project and follow up on activities already taking place on the ground, and to act as the Coordinator of EITI capacity building among a breadth of local CSOs.

Due in large part to NACE's work carried out under this grant, Sierra Leone has now officially signed on to the EITI process, culminating in the multi-stakeholder launch event held in late June 2007. RWI staff conducted a site visit to Sierra Leone to participate in the EITI Launch event, as well as meet with coalition members, government and industry, and to see NACE's work in action. RWI determined that the advancement of the initiative is clearly the result of NACE's proactive approach to mobilizing civil society, government and industry. Over the last several months, the group has established a multi-stakeholder steering committee made up of all three stakeholders, crafted a memorandum of understanding among steering committee members, and drafted a framework and work plan for moving the EITI process forward.

RWI is continuing support of NACE through 2010 in its efforts to educate civil society on the principles of EITI and to complement RWI's current technical assistance in the mining review process. NACE is not only represented on the national multi-stakeholder steering committee, but also on the mining contract review task force. This project comes at a crucial time for Sierra Leone, as a new reform-minded government seeks to renegotiate major mining contracts, pass new minerals legislation addressing major loopholes on the economic, social and environmental fronts and successfully move forward with EITI implementation and validation over the coming 18 months.  NACE is well-positioned as the key civil society organization able to engage and influence policy debates on all three of these subjects.

For more information on the activities of NACE, please see www.nacesl.org/.