By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The National Minerals Agency has engaged journalists on a one day consultative discussion on the Community Development Agreement (CDA). The engagement was held on Wednesday at SLAJ headquarters in Freetown.
The program was organized by National Action Coalition on Extractives (NACE) and Open Tax Initiative (OTI). The focus of the engagement was to highlight the role of the media in tracking the implementation of the CDA and gauging the input of journalists towards the CDA.
NACE Coordinator, Cecilia Mattia, insisted on the importance of the media in ensuring transparency in the mining sector.
“The presence of the media has not been visible. They have to track those moneys going down there for development,” she said.
Director of Community Relations at NMA, Ibrahim Satty Kamara, explained about the essence of establishing a document like the CDA.
“CDA was originated by government for people to benefit from minerals that are coming from their own back yards.”
The document is a set of guidelines that mining communities and companies have started adopting to ensure sustainable mining and greater benefit for communities. The document was developed by NMA and other development partners like World Bank, NACE and others.
NACE Coordinator, Mattia, said the model has been a success so far despite minor resistance from some traditional authorities.
Mattia said, “At first the chiefs were angry because they thought we were trying to diminish their authority. However we have managed to convince them that their compliance will raise them above suspicion of stealing mining revenues in their communities.”
In the past, communities have accused chiefs and other chiefdom authorities about embezzling development funds meant for their community.
As part of the agreement, the CDA sets up for a committee to run the proceeds that government gives to mining communities. A clause within the agreement states that people like the chief, councilors and Members of Parliament would not hold leading positions in the committee.
Journalist Fatima Sesay complained about the lack of access to information from the NMA regarding mining development in the country. In response to the query, NMA Public Relations Officer, Henry Kamara, said they are open from now onwards to sharing information.
Head of OTI, Tanu Jalloh, closed the forum by suggesting clarification on the compliance conditions of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). NMA officials say Sierra Leone is fully compliant with the EITI standards, which sets the bar for international best practice.
Authorities from NMA and NACE say the CDA model has attracted international applause from international experts because of its success.
NMA says the engagement with the media is the start of a greater openness about the extractive sector in the country.