AMECEA Justice and Peace departments held a two days consultative workshop on the Extractive Industry. The workshop which commenced on 16th September and ended on 17th September drew participants from mining areas in Kenya and Uganda conferences. The government of Uganda was represented in the consultation. Here are Key note address during the opening ceremony.
EXTRACTIVE ACTIVITIES
IN KENYA
CONSULTATION WORKSHOP
15TH- 18TH
SEPTEMBER 2014
OPENING REMARKS.
Many
countries have financed their development through resource extraction. However,
there are risks related to natural resources wealth. When exploited, they can
also bring social conflict, feed corruption, and displace people from their
homes and lands, pollute rivers and seas, destroy people’s health, and cause
irreversible biodiversity loss.
Such
negative outcomes of resource extraction, however, are not inevitable. They can
be tackled through effective strategies, legal frameworks and policies.
The
important potential contributions of mining, oil and other extractive
industries to human development and the common good depend on employing
practices that respect human life and dignity and the environment. Too often, people end up suffering not only
from the effects of badly managed extractive operations but also the conflicts created
by the struggle over control of the wealth generated. The examples where
natural resources and extractive industries in Africa have become a curse than
a blessing are eminent in the DRC, Niger Delta, Liberia, Sudan, South Sudan etc.
We might not want this to be repeated in Kenya or some countries in AMECEA that
have made discovery of natural resources in the recent past.
I thank the
AMECEA Justice and Peace for recognizing the far reaching impacts of extractive
activities. I hope this consultative meeting bares fruits and generates the way
forward for the regional church to engage in this front. As the church we need
projects and strategies implemented in diverse political, social and cultural
contexts.
The reality
of extractives is soon catching up with us in Kenya or already we are in it. As
Catholic Faithful we should care about the effects of extractive industries mentioned
above. The church’s social teaching calls on Catholics to uphold the life and
dignity of every human person, to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters
worldwide, and to care for God’s creation. Since the extraction activities
affect the poor most acutely, the church in region of AMECEA should embrace
this initiative and run with it.
Through the
Bishop’s conference in AMECEA and across the African Continent, there must be
consulted efforts towards advocacy addressing issues related to extractive
industries. This has to do with their own governments, international financial
institutions, and extractives companies, urging them to become more transparent
to reduce the negative impacts of resource extraction on people and the environment
and to increase benefits for the poor most especially.
Our strategy
should be broad to the governance of extractive industries. Our mission should
be to ensure that natural wealth is used to improve people’s lives.
We must work
to protect the lives and dignity of poor people and to assure that potential
benefits of natural resource extraction are realized, all parties involved in
the extractive industry sector.
AMECEA and
Bishops Conference ought to urge the governments to:
·
Ensure
that they manage extractive revenues in ways that reduce corruption and promote
human development in areas such as education and health;
·
Promote
human development in areas such as education and health;
·
Put
in place social and environmental standards that ensure respect for communities,
workers, human rights and the environment, and that promote availability of
information on extractive projects;
·
Legislate
on management of the natural resources and extractive activities.
The
Conferences and diocese Justice and Peace offices should have initiative to
check whether extractive industry companies:
·
Respect
human rights
·
Collaborate
with communities where extractive projects are implemented to assure that
information is freely available and local communities are involved in decisions
that affect them.
To conclude,
let me acknowledge that Bishops of every part of the world have expressed
concern regarding extractive industries. I hereby retaliate the concerns of People
Benedict XVI, on the issue of the environment as stated in Caritas in Veritate:
“Let us hope that the international community and individual governments will
succeed in countering harmful ways of treating the environment. It is likewise incumbent
upon the competent authorities to make every effort to ensure that the economic
and social costs of using up shared environmental resources are recognized with
transparency and fully borne by those who incur them, not by other people or
future generations: the protection if
the environment, of resources and of the climate obliges all
international leaders to act jointly and to show a readiness to work in good
faith, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of
the planet (NO. 50).” But this can only happen if our governments have policies
and laws to protect the environment and their people from the negative effects
of extractive activities.
The Most Rev. Zacchaeus Okoth
Chairman
KCCB- Catholic Justice and Peace Commission
Extractive Consultation Workshop 15th-18th
September 2014,
Emmaus Centre, Nairobi
By
Fr. Ferdinand Lugonzo,
AMECEA Secretary General
I am delighted to welcome
you to Nairobi the Home of AMECEA Secretariat. I sincerely thank you for the
work you are doing in your respective countries. In this gathering, we have
representatives from the National Justice and Peace commissions, people from
various regions in Kenya and Uganda where extractive activities take place and
Government representatives from the two countries. The diversity in
representation reflects the commitment and enthusiasm imbued in you to find
solutions to the challenges facing our people in relation to this very vibrant
industry.
Association of Member
Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) is a Catholic Organization of
the Bishops of 9 countries in the Eastern Africa. It was established in 1961 as
a tool of Evangelization that addresses common Pastoral Endeavors through
solidarity and collaboration. In order to achieve its mission, AMECEA has
created various Departments like Social Communication, Pastoral and Justice and
Peace to respond to various needs in the mission. The Department of Justice and
Peace which has gathered us here today was started in the year 2002 for the
purposes of addressing socio-political and economic challenges in this region.
In this case we are gathered here in an effort to address an economic justice
issue facing our people around mining and extractive activities.
It is difficult to separate
political problems with economic problems. Struggle for political power is
based on the need to address economy and poverty. Those in power are expected
to empower their people economically but this does not seem to happen to the
right standards. African politics have tended to be anchored in economic
empowerment of the politicians themselves and using the same endowment to
manipulate their respective communities. This leads to ethnicity, tribalism,
regionalism and many other social divides that influence political landscape.It
is in this faith that the church has a role to play in addressing poverty by
asking these critical questions like why we have many natural resources yet
your people remain poor.
It is difficult to reconcile
the two facts especially considering that our resources are being utilized,
mining and oil harvesting is still going on, so who is benefiting from the
resources? What are the policies
regulating these activities? These are questions the Church in AMECEA would
wish to begin asking and having the government representatives is a blessing to
us in shedding more light on the policies regulating the industry and the gaps
therein.
In this workshop, we will
also explore ways of church engaging with the experts in this area so that she
can continue working with Law Makers for positive interventions and advocacy in
formulating of better policies. This will help address
some of the deep seated social problems especially touching on the thorny
matter of land acquisition displacement and resettlement and how the affected
communities are involved in all this process.
We hope through this kind of
engagement will help the Church in intervening for the people in an effective
manner where the resources of these countries will begin serving the common
good and not a few individuals. This is service to justice and informed by the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Social Teaching of the Church.
Extractives
Consultation Workshop 15th-18th September 2014,
Emmaus Centre,
Nairobi
By
Fr. Jude WAWERU
Justice and Peace
Department Coordinator
The Background
on the Extractives Consultation Workshop
Some
of the major problems the region of AMECEA grabbles with are conflicts and
poverty. At the surface, these conflicts appear to be purely political but upon
deeper perusal, it is revealed that beneath the political dynamics lies the
economic factor and that in fact one cannot separate these two factors.
Tribalism/ethnicity or regionalism seems to take the centre stage around
elections period often leading to some conflicts or struggle. The struggle is
often fuelled by ethnic, tribal or regional sentiments on account of one fact,
that the region or the tribe that produce the leader of the country or other
leaders stand to benefit more materially. This brings us to the economic factor
of the conflicts. The foregoing scenario is ultimately triggered by one reality
namely that our people are poor or rather impoverished. If the populations are
well endowed materially, have access to public resources and means of
production, then the question of who gets to power would not carry a lot of
weight. So, the reality remains that poverty is real in this region and that on
account of it many other social problems like conflicts emerge.
An
attempt to answer a deeper question “why are the people poor?” has revealed
other facts. It is readily observable that AMECEA countries and beyond are rich
in resources, among others extractives, gas and oil. These are expensive
products that have a potential of great revenue which if well utilized for
common good as enshrined in the Social Teaching of the Church would generate
wealth enough to tremendously reduce poverty levels. It is indeed a
contradiction that the region is rich in these resources but the people are
poor, notwithstanding the fact that mining is going on. The retired Pontiff Pope
Benedict echoed this fact at the opening ceremony of the second synod of
Bishops of Africa when he asked why the continent of Africa is rich in
resources yet a host to the poorest populations of the world! So the big
inevitable question is who is benefiting. This is a question the Church is
trying to answer. On the 3rd of September 2013, the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace
brought together the executives of the mining industry who gathered together in
order to study “the principal ethical
problems arising from their activities, especially in Africa and in other
developing regions of the world”. Indeed a deeper investigation and
intervention by the Church needs to be effected with an objective of advocating
for better mining policies and the equitable distribution of the revenue to the
service of the common good.
In
June 2013, Justice and Peace Department together with KENDREN (Kenya debt
Relief network) took some interest and interrogated the situation in Tanzania
and Uganda by bringing national justice and peace commissions and other players
together to understand the mining status and to say the least, the findings
were thirsting for more action. Among others, the problem of negative
environmental impact is clear. The degraded environment is leaving the entire
ecological system disturbed, bringing forth affliction, not just to the animals
and vegetation but also to the people whose livelihoods are affected.
The
above scenario left this department with the hunger to do more in terms of
bringing the Church leaders on board and assisting the Church to sharpen her
prophetic voice for policy intervention.
Some
of the underlying problems we discovered included:-
a) Policies that regulate extractive
industries are not clear or harmonized
b) Policies requiring the rehabilitation
of the environment are not followed to the letter.
c) Where they exist, they are not made
known to the people and particularly those victims of the activity
d) Some of the corrupt leaders have
colluded with mining companies in allowing miners that have not followed the
due process
e) Lack of transparency on the side of
the government on how licenses are granted and on the side of the miners on the
money made from mining
f) The most affected people, those
exploited by the miners are largely ignorant and have no knowledge of how to go
about giving their grievances
g) Land acquisition and displacement
h) The Church has not been clearly
visible in this matter, possibly owing to the technicality of the same
i)
During
the consultation, we shall reflect on the following topical subjects:-
a) We shall share the findings of the
survey regarding the environmental impact and the interventions that have been
advanced by other players
b) A sharing of what the Church may have
done to improve the situation and who the Church has been working with
c) Identify and explore entry points for
the Church and effective actions to be taken in a collaborative approach
d) Share more on the existing policies on
environment in the area of extractives and identify the gaps
e) We shall identify activities and roles
especially in policy advocacy to seal the gaps and the loopholes
f) We shall engage ourselves in the
planning of activities and follow-up activities. This will include a visit to
two countries of the planned activities, six months after the consultation.
We
hope to achieve the following Objectives:-
a) To have the Church be actively engaged
in addressing the issues of environmental justice.
b) To create networks that will be
identified as relevant and useful in restoring the dignity of the environment
as a source of livelihood for the people
c) To engage the government, policy
makers and other stakeholders in a discussion on better environment as a
challenge that is posed by the mining activities.
d) Making environmental challenges a
regional concern and weaving together efforts within conferences in addressing
it.
e) To address the thorny issue of land
acquisition and displacement
Goal
To
have a Church that is collaborating with other interested actors to effectively
and positively engage in matters of environmental justice for the good of the
people.
As I
thank you for sparing time to be part of this great reflection I wish you a
fruitful meeting for the good of our people.
God
bless your work.
