NEWS Three-day Conference on Africa’s Natural Resources Starts in Tanzania Posted by on May 13, 2010, 10:34

Participants at the three-day regional conference on Africa’s oil, Gas and Mineral Resources

A three-day regional conference on Africa’s coil, Gas and Mineral Resources for development and the role of legislators, civil society and the media, commenced on 11^th May 2010 at the White Sands Hotel in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The objective of the conference which is jointly organized by the Policy Forum, Revenue Watch Institute, Africa Institute for Energy Governance, Parliamentary Centre and the National Advocacy Coalition on Extractives (NACE), is to provide delegates with knowledge through technical training as well as sharing and learning experiences about oversight of oil, gas and mining.

The conference also aims at increasing channels and opportunities for collaboration and access to intellectual and training resources and expertise on extractives.The conference draws together a total of 45 participants, mostly parliamentarians, civil society activists and media practitioners from countries such as Tanzania, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Uganda.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the facilitator of the event, Vanessa Herring Shaw, the Revenue Watch Director of Training and Capacity Building referred to the conference as not only timely, but crucial stating that “More than ever before”. Africans need to make the most of their natural resources”. Among the topics to be deliberated are the extractive industries and their importance to the four targeted countries and Africa in general.

The role of the oversight bodies and the value chain, reforming extractive industries laws and accessing and reviewing contracts and agreements. The conference ends today Thursday 13^th May 2010, and the general expectation is that participants will return home to their respective countries to re-energize and inform their colleagues to be able to effectively take up the challenge of injecting sanity into the country’s extractive industries.

Sierra Leone has seven participants at the conference, and they include Honourable Chernor Ramadan Maju Bah, Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Mining, Honourable Bernadette Nyama Ann Lahai, member of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Mining, Honourable Paramount Chief Sahr Fengai Korgbende Kaimachiande 111 of Gbense Chiefdom, Kono District and also member of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Mining, Cecelia Christiana Mattia, National Co-ordinator of NACE, Joseph Rahall, Executive Director of Green Scenery, Alpha Umaro Sesay of IBIS and Theophilus Sahr Gbenda, freelance journalist and chairman of the Association of Journalists on Mining and Extractives (AJME) and official representative of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) at the conference.