Civil society organisations (CSOs) must advocate for balanced ownership of natu- ral resources, as these resources belong to the people of Africa, stated Graça Machel Trust founder Graça Machel.

Machel spoke as part of a panel at the African Natural Resources Centre (ANRC) of the African Development Bank’s Conference of African Civil Society Organisations on Natural Resources, held in Johannesburg earlier this month.

The other panellists were ANRC director Sheila Khama, Pan-African think-tank the Mandela Institute for Development Studies executive chairperson Dr Nkosana Moyo and United Nations (UN) Development Programme senior economist Osten Chulu.

The former First Lady of South Africa and Mozambique stated that it was also important for CSOs to emphasise that the natural resources of a country were the shared right of all its citizens and not just the property of governments and mining companies. Therefore, ownership was a matter that CSOs must pay greater attention to.

Machel added that it was also important that local people gained the knowledge and expertise required to develop and operate natural resource projects.

“Once a project’s resource has been depleted, countries should not just be left with big holes and resentment by local communities because they did not benefit sufficiently from the mineral resources that were extracted,” she stressed.

Machel highlighted that CSOs were the voice of the people and the protectors of their national interests for now and for future generations to come. She said that natural resources must also be used to empower women, rural communities and the youth.

Further, Machel stressed that CSOs must ensure they familiarise themselves with the country’s legislation and learn how the legislative process works, as this would enable them to effectively advocate their views to assert what should be done and to highlight what had not been contemplated, as well as how to correctly address these concerns with the judiciary.

“CSOs need to stop talking in generalities; instead, we need to know the law and point out how we believe companies and/or governments are violating it,” she stated.

Machel commented that local private businesses also had the responsibility to manage the development of natural resource projects on behalf of the people of their respective countries. She said that they, in fact, had “a patriotic duty” to not just make money for themselves, but also to ensure that the fruits of the natural resource projects they were involved in were shared by the majority of the people.

Additionally, Machel pointed out that, wherever natural resource projects were being developed, these were being undertaken on land that people had been living on for generations and when people had to move or lose part of their land, they essentially lose a part of their heritage and tradition.

“These communities must be compensated and treated with dignity. Local communities must benefit beyond job creation – they should be given a shareholding, in these operations,” she stated.

Meanwhile, Khama noted, CSOs could play an important role in brokering trust between governments and foreign investors in natural resource projects.

Mistrust between these parties was hindering the progressive development of Africa’s natu- ral resources sector, she said. Additionally, Khama stated, CSOs should act as interlocutors between the people, governments and businesses.

“This is a burden that CSOs must carry as they have the privilege of being the trusted representatives of the broader society,” she said.

Fellow panellist Moyo added that African CSOs had to be seen as legitimate by local governments and should therefore be very careful in sourcing the bulk of their funding from outside the continent.

“This is because many governments are of the view that international funders have their own negative, foreign-driven agenda in funding African CSOs,” he explained.

Moyo averred that the challenge of raising funds for African CSOs locally had to be addressed as “a matter of urgency”.

Chulu pointed out that the UN had been speaking about the issue of development for the past 50 years. However, he noted that some parts of the world, particularly in Africa, were still no better off despite being richly endowed with mineral resources.