Whereas it is true that expectations are extremely high among African populations for extractive sector wealth to be converted into greater prosperity for now and the future, we know from daily experience, anecdotal, several rounds of Afrobarometer and other research data that a wide gap persists between popular demand for transparency and accountability relative to its supply by governments and other powerful actors almost everywhere on the African continent. For this reason, and speaking from the vantage of African/Ghanaian civil society, media and ordinary citizens, I fully welcome the extractive industry transparency and accountability partnership in Ghana and other resource rich African countries that is being launched. Accordingly, we, on our part as citizen groups in this laudatory partnership initiative, are fully committed to: • Vigorously monitoring and highlighting the positive and negative aspects of contract, revenue and budgetary transparency in our countries’ extractive industry; • Extensively disseminating our findings and analysis to different segments of the population; and • Sharing our concerns with the authorities and industry players To enable us successfully discharge the oversight and public education roles that we have dedicated ourselves to in this partnership, however, we need the following: a. From you, our governmental authorities and industry players (such as Tullow), we need an equally strong commitment (through both policy and legislation) to sharing with civil society and media crucial information on resource contracts, payments made and received, budgets, expenditures, and audits. b. From you, the UK and other G8 governments as well as northern NGOs, we need your commitment to (1) promoting the adoption of sound international reporting standards for extractive companies. (e.g., in the spirit of the US Congress’s 2012 Dodd Frank Act requiring all companies exploiting oil and gas that are registered on the US Stock exchange to publicly report what they have paid to governments); and (2) support to strengthen our technical capacities to play our role in this partnership. For further information, kindly call/email: Theodore Dzeble Public Affairs Officer 0244 215 736/tdzeble@cddghana.org