The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one of the richest nations on Earth in terms of natural resources, but most Congolese people haven’t enjoyed the benefits from the billions of dollars in investments in the DRC’s extractive sector over recent decades.
Corruption, mismanagement, and insufficient institutional capacity have allowed revenues to be channeled away from investment in the country’s sustainable development, leaving local communities to suffer the negative environmental, health, and human rights impacts of the oil, gas, and minerals industries, often with no effective means of recourse.
The overarching goal of the Carter Center’s Extractive Industries Governance Project is to advance transparency and accountability in the extractive sector. Working with national civil society organizations, the Center strengthens partners’ capacity to monitor, analyze, and report on specific mining projects and sector-wide governance issues.
The Carter Center trains and supports local partners to track resource and revenue flows and to conduct human rights impact assessments to determine how communities are negatively impacted by specific major industrial mining projects or hydrocarbon operations. This information, along with contracts and other key documents, is published on the Center’s CongoMines website and linked to an interactive map of extractive projects in the DRC.
Further, the Center actively helps communities understand the impacts of extractive operations on their lives and teaches them how to engage companies and the government to address their concerns. It uses revenue analyses and human rights impact assessment findings to produce public reports and advocacy plans, which civil society partners use to provide actionable recommendations to key stakeholders in government, business, and the international community. The Center encourages constructive dialogue with government and company representatives on specific concerns and recommendations. It also trains organizations to work with communities to raise awareness of key concepts, such as human rights and corporate social responsibility.
Over the past 15 years, 30 Congolese civil society organizations have benefited from the Carter Center’s technical and financial assistance, including women-led groups seeking to engage in a traditionally male-dominated sector. Each addition further strengthens a civil society sector specializing in natural resources by giving it the skills necessary to engage and influence decision-makers and protect communities.
The project’s accomplishments include:
In addition:
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