Wacam and Acep Coordinate Study Tour for Ministers, Parliamentarians and CSO groups from Senegal
Wacam in collaboration with Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) facilitated a study tour for 22 people drawn from Parliament and Civil Society Groups in Senegal, 26th August to 2nd September. The event which was funded by Ford Foundation (Nigeria) had 22 participants. The group had meetings with regulators in the mining and oil/gas as well as meetings with the Parliamentary Select Committee on mines and Energy in Ghana. There were a number of community visits to mining communities in Akyem and Ahafo where the participants interacted with community people on what communities consider to be good governance in the extractive sector. The community people stress the need for policy makers to develop mechanisms of inclusion which would allow all owners of natural resources especially the affected communities to be part of the decision making process in natural resource governance to eliminate the gross human rights violations that mining communities suffer. The group express the need for more sharing among the sub region as a way of maximising the benefits of states from natural resource extraction