AMECEA Justice and Peace Desk and Kenya Debt Relief Network, organized a workshop in Uganda and Tanzania, from 24th - 28th June 2013, on Extractives and the financialization of Nature in East Africa.
According to Mr. Kiama Kaara, the Programmes Coordinator at Kenya Debt Relief Network, research on countries like Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo shows that too often, government revenues from resource extraction are simply not making their way into spending for basic social services such as health, nutrition and education. Worse yet, profits from extractives too often fuel terrible violence.Poor governance and corruption in resource rich developing countries are a serious problem, but developed countries governments and private enterprise especially the transnational companies are a part of the problem as well.
Arguably the East African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are headed down the route of a burgeoning extractive economy. It is imperative to that the local communities not only benefit from these resources, but are involved in the whole process of natural resources management so as to spread the wealth gains and check marginalization, resentment and eruption of violence as has being the notable case in other resource rich countries.
There is need for governments to put in place the necessary legal, policy and institutional policy framework to guide the management of the extractive economy. This should take cognizant of the varied stakeholders involved and ensure that indeed the involvement of communities is guaranteed.
It is with this in mind, that KENDREN and AMECEA conducted a joint research on extractives and financialization of nature study in the three East African countries namely; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
The research covers the legal and institutional frameworks on the extractive sector; challenges experienced and proffer some key policy recommendations on the process.
The dissemination workshop brought together about thirty five (35) participants from each country; drawn from the C.S.O.s, Faith Based Groups, the Academia, Researchers, Activists and Church leaders. The workshop offered an opportunity to interact and discuss the research findings and also develop a national and regional strategy for C.S.O.s engagement with the process.
