Mauritanian Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have been urged to play a more active role in demanding transparency in the management of extractive industries.
The advisor of the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation (GIZ) for the governance of natural resources in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire, Mrs Julianne Weymanne, asked them to work in synergy in order to strengthen their capacity.
She was speaking in Nouakchott on Thursday at a conference organised by the National Committee for Transparency in Extractive Industries.
Mrs Weymanne noted that CSOs were being given support and training by international partners to back the transparency process of extractive industries.
She said the key role played by civil society in the transparency process in terms of management of extractive industries must also result in their stronger involvement in the drafting of annual reports, sensitization campaigns and caravans.
Mrs Weymanne urged them to be creative given the national realities, while remaining in accord with international demands.
Mauritania produces iron, gold, copper and to a lesser degree oil.
The creation of an international initiative for transparency is justified by the numerous problems of governance in the management of extractive resources such as illegal transfers, fraud and tax evasion, corruption, breach of the environment and the rights for communities which affect political, economic, social and environmental activities.
