On July 6th and 7th, 2006, over 40 participants from 20 different countries gathered in Accra, Ghana for the OECD Watch Inter-regional Training and Strategy Seminar. The seminar, which was organised by OECD Watch member organisations IRENE and WACAM, focused on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and other international instruments that can be used to hold mining companies accountable for their activities in Africa.
NiZA/ Fatal Transactions attended the OECD Watch regional seminar on the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and other international norms, standards and principles or responsible business behaviour in Accra,Ghana. The conference was organised by WACAM; the Wassa association of communities affected by Mining, a Ghanaian NGO. About 40 civil society representatives attended the conference. A large part came from West Africa, but there were also participants from the DRC, Malawi, Brazil, Indonesia, India, the United States, Australia and Europe. Most had a specific interest in, or experience with, problems related to the mining industry.
OECD Watch is a network of civil society organisations promoting corporate accountability. The purpose of OECD Watch is "to test the effectiveness of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational enterprises and to inform the wider NGO community about the policies and activities of the OECD Investment committee" (www.oecdwatch.org) NiZA is a member of OECD Watch, as are several members of NiZA's PPP network, such as DECOP (Zambia) and Asadho (DRCongo).
Rationale behind the Accra meeting was to bring together NGOs, affected communities and media in order to assess how companies, particularly in Africa, carry out their corporate social responsibility, and to what extend existing guidelines and principles can be of any help to enforce more responsible behaviour of both companies and governments.
The conference participants once more concluded that weak governance, lack of transparency and accountability, notably combined with the majority of Foreign Direct Investment going into natural resources, has led to to severe human rights abuses, deterioration of livelihoods, pollution and poor labour practices in many developing countries. In a country like Ghana, that has not suffered any major conflicts since independence, and where 70% of all FDI goes into the mining industry, it still has not contributed substantially to sustainable development. The fact that all African OECD cases up to now deal with the extractive industries is illustrative to the problem resource rich countries and communities are facing.
During various presentations the functioning of the OECD guidelines, the possibilities and limitations to use them to enforce more responsible business behaviour, were explained to the participants. Procedures were illustrated by experiences from the participants; the effectiveness of filed cases compared with other possible instruments, such as the various UN conventions. For more information on lessons learned in previous OECD complaint procedures, click here.
The conference ended with a set of recommendations that stressed the need for internationally binding standards for corporate social responsibility. Participants recognised the need to continue working together as a network, exchanging information for lobby and advocacy purposes, and develop campaigns and strategies together.
The majority of the participants to the conference stayed on for the field visit to Wassa district, where most of the gold mining of Ghana is concentrated. Several affected communities in areas controlled by various multinationals were visited by the participants.