African Center for Economic Transformation: Technical Assistance Facility

The lack of specialized capacity in many African governments for the management of natural resources poses a serious impediment to the efforts of African states and their partners to maximize public benefit from extractive wealth. There is a high demand among governments and civil society to bolster this capacity, particularly with regards to establishing laws and contracts that maximize public earnings; monitoring the operations and tax payments of participating companies; crafting and enforcing effective environmental protection regimes; taking advantage of resource economies to promote key domestic industries; and expanding local capacity to effectively manage the mineral and petroleum sectors.

To date, a service gap has prevented African governments from getting the timely and affordable access to expertise that they need. Heavy reliance on foreign consultants has further impeded the development of national and regional capacity in Africa, perpetuating the dependence on outside assistance. To address these challenges, Revenue Watch is working with the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) and the Norwegian government's Oil for Development Program (OfD) on the development of an Extractive Resources Facility to be based in ACET's offices in Accra, Ghana.

The facility will provide technical assistance to African governments in the development of extractive industry legal and fiscal systems, the negotiation and monitoring of contracts, and the development of effective regimes for environmental management of extractive projects. The technical assistance facility will be staffed primarily by highly-skilled African professionals with relevant legal and financial expertise or experience in extractive industries, to provide a source of long-term advice and assistance to governments, as well as build capacity in Africa.

To begin, the facility will provide assistance in three issue areas of acute need: legal and fiscal reform processes, including contract negotiations; environmental management; and monitoring and enforcement of rules and contracts. Over the longer term, as the technical assistance facility and ACET continue to build relationships with governments in the region, the focus will expand to other areas of technical assistance such as operational management of the resource sector, data management and local industry development.

To learn more about the African Center for Economic Transformation, please go to acetforafrica.org.