Thu, 04 May 2017 14:55:49 +0000
By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
IMPLEMENTING a decentralisation policy is essential in ensuring a direct link of policies to the community to enable them participate in the selection of mining pro- jects in their areas.
ALMOST all the districts in Zambia have mining activities, these are either the actual mining or exploration and communities expect revenue generated from such activities to translate into better living conditions.
Mineral-rich areas have continued to shoulder a huge burden of hosting mines without due compensation and mitigation of the impacts of extractive activities within their localities.
Such communities have argued for a long time on the need to ensure that revenue generated from the sector developed their areas.
This however calls for intensive training by both Government and the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to ensure that these com- munities fully understood how the revenue is accounted for and the benefits they were entitled to.
To this e ect, the Centre for Trade Policy and Development (CTPD) recently organised a training and meetings with the community and the local authority in Sinazongwe to discuss how the Mineral Revenue Sharing Mechanism (MRSM) operates.
MRSM is a system of disbursing resource rents and other transfers paid by corporations to host governments.
The mandate of CTPD is to introduce pro-poor trade reforms at national, regional and multilateral levels as well as facilitate the participation of various stakeholders; including member organisations in ensuring that trade is used as a tool for poverty eradication.
It provides analytical research, capacity building and facilitation services in trade and investment sectors to civil society, the local private sector, small-scale producer groups and Government.
CTPD, a CSO, has formed National Resource Watch Groups (NRWG) in some parts of Zambia where there are mining or exploration activities.
These NRWGs are meant to track mineral revenue from mines and explorations in respective areas.
According to Sinazongwe National Resource Watch Group chairperson, Emma Chali, the group has made head ways in monitoring the revenue expenditure generated by the two mines in the area.
Ms Chali said the group is working tirelessly to ensure the community bene ted from these revenues.
“The aim of the group is to en- sure that we track the revenue extracted from the extractive indus tries and ensure that they bene t the community,” she said.
CTPD conducted the trainings
in the community in Sinazongwe to understand and ensure that communities bene ted from the revenue generated by the mines in the area.
The organisation has also developed a Community Mineral Revenue Tracking Toolkit declaration, approval and inclusion in the development budget of the councils.
The CSO explains that this consultation should include youths, children and women in the respective constituencies.
CTPD economic governance
rounding communities bene ted from the mines in their areas.
“We have been training these groups so that they know about the laws governing the mining sector. We also train them on is- sues such as the lack of a legislations such as the absence of the a
years had not translated to sig- ni cant progress in terms of human development, particularly at local level.
She was speaking during her presentation on “Building effective community development through a MRSM” at a meeting in Sinazongwe recently.
The meeting was attended by Senior Chief Mweemba, the council officials, councillors and community representatives.
CTPD emphasised the need for transparency with Government taking the lead in the process of developing the MRSM while involving civil society, companies and “legitimate” beneficiaries and councils.
The establishment of a MRSM through a mineral development fund will ensure that mining effectively contributed to local development and poverty reduction e orts and tracking of this contribution will be more effective and efficient.
To ensure e ective operations of the MRSM, it is important for Government to take deliberate steps in ensuring that revenues from the extractive sector were used for the benefit of communities hosting mining activities.
This calls for among other things, the development of a model for Community Development Agreements to guide the negotiations process with the communities and setting up minimum standards for housing to be provided by mining firms to mitigate the impact of mining on those a ected by the activities.
In Sinazongwe, for instance, there are two major mines Kandabwe and Maamba Collieries Limited (MCL) which were at the centre of discussion at a meeting organised by CTPD.
In explaining how the revenue collected from these two mines are used to develop the nearby communities, Sinazongwe District Council chairperson, Alick Muleya, said MCL had so far built a bridge for the community.
Mr Muleya explained that the council was planning to upgrade the infrastructure in the area using the same revenue.
He added that MCL will this year deliver equipment worth over K500 million to the Sinazongwe District Council for the development of the town.
Mr Muleya said MCL will in the first week of June 2017 de- liver equipment, among them a 30-tonnes tipper truck and a 7-tonne light garbage truck.
“We signed an agreement in February 2017 so we agreed that within five months they will sup- ply to the council. We agreed that by the first week of June, we will receive this equipment,” he said.
And Senior Chief Mweemba urged the community and councillors to continue taking interest in the mining activities in their areas.
These NRWGs are meant to track mineral revenue from mines and
signed to provide a box of tools on how to e ectively and e – ciently plan and implement the monitoring work.
According to CTPD, the in- crease in mining production over the years has not translated into signi cant progress in terms of human development, particularly at the local level as seen by rising poverty levels which are at 80 percent in some rural areas.
CTPD argues that communi- ties hosting extractive industries in their constituencies should therefore be involved in the iden- ti cation and prioritisation of development projects for consid-
explorations in respective areas.
programme assistant, Kangwa Muyunda, explained that the organisation was using NRWG groups to advocate for a min- eral royalty sharing mechanism across Zambia.
Ms Muyunda said such groups were formed to ensure that sur-
law compelling mines to disclose their revenue generated from the minerals.
“Lack of this law has compro- mised the quality of mine reports on review tracking,” she said.
Ms Muyunda said the increase in mining production over the
CTPD conducted the trainings in the community in Sinazongwe to understand and ensure that communities
bene ted from the revenue generated by the mines in the area.
