Africa is standing on the edge of enormous opportunity and African policy makers and their partners have critical choices to make. They can either invest their natural resource revenue in people to generate jobs and opportunities for millions in present and future generations. Or they can squander this opportunity, allowing jobless growth and inequality to take root.
This year’s report identifies a shared agenda for change:
- African governments must improve their governance and strengthen national capacity to manage extractive industries as part of a broader economic and developmental strategy
- African governments should put transparency and accountability at the heart of natural resource policies, secure a fair share of natural resource revenue for their citizens, and spread the benefits of this revenue via equitable public spending;
- The international community should build on the US Dodd-Frank Act and comparable EU legislation to develop a global standard for transparency and disclosure, develop a credible and effective multilateral response to tax evasion and avoidance, and tackle money laundering and anonymous shell companies;
- International business should follow best practices on transparency, help build national capacity, procure more products and services locally, and raise standards in all areas of corporate accountability and responsibility;
- Civil society should build capacity and continue to hold governments and companies to account.
Kofi Annan and the Africa Progress Panel launched the 2013 Africa Progress Report, “Equity in Extractives: Stewarding Africa’s natural resources for all”, on 10 May 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa.
For more information, visit our website: www.africaprogresspanel.org
