Earlier this month, International Alert organised a three-day seminar for civil society aimed at exchanging information and increasing transparency in the management of oil revenues in the island state of São Tomé and Príncipe.
The event occurred just weeks before the launch of the first round of licensing bids for the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone in London on 2nd March 2010. Although licensing has already been completed for blocks of the country’s Joint Development Zone with Nigeria, the London launch marks the first time blocks of São Tomé and Príncipe’s exclusive territory have been auctioned to oil companies to conduct explorations. As such, the seminar was held at an opportune moment to reflect on the situation to date and to strategise for the future.
Alert has been conducting conflict prevention in the country since 2004 to strengthen the capacities of the media, civil society organisations and parliamentarians so that São Tomé and Príncipe’s anticipated oil exploration can be used for development, through an equitable distribution of oil wealth.
The February 2010 seminar raised the awareness of civil society about the structures and processes that have been set up in the country surrounding oil exploration and promoted civil society’s engagement with all stakeholders. Idalécio Quaresma, President of the Oil Commission, presented an overview of the legal framework governing oil exploration in the country. This was followed by presentations by representatives from the Joint Development Authority that oversees oil extraction in the Joint Development Zone that falls under the jurisdiction of Nigeria and São Tomé and Príncipe (STP), the National Oil Agency, the Cabinet of Registration and Public Information and the STP branch of Extractive Industries’ Transparency Initiative. These agencies shared work done and lessons learned to date as well as details of the constraints under which they worked.
Marie Odete Aguiar, President of the Federation of NGOs, facilitated a very productive session examining steps that civil society organisations can take towards ensuring transparency and disseminating information to raise awareness of these issues among the population at large. Attendees agreed on the need to collaborate and partner together so that civil society organisations speak with one voice to guarantee the implementation of transparency laws and policies. Civil society representatives also agreed to set up a coalition commission that works with Alert, the government and national oil agencies and departments to ensure improvements in oil governance.
The event concluded with a training session on advocacy and negotiation skills given by Afonso Varela, former legal adviser to the government during oil negotiations.
This seminar, conducted as part of the USAID-funded project ‘Countering the Conflict Potential of Oil’, attracted wide media coverage and was featured on the national radio, TV and in the weekend newspapers in an effort to ensure that issues of oil exploration, transparency and expenditure of oil revenues remain firmly on the public agenda.