Arrival in Kenya

What an exhilarating few days and the formal events of the WSF have yet to commence! I arrived on Wednesday night, the 17th; it's good to be back in Kenya.

On Thursday and Friday, I attended a CIDSE workshop on Extractive industries. CIDSE is the European network of Catholic Deveopment Agencies of which Trocaire is a member. In my role in Trocaire, I am working on supporting our partners in West Africa in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. In all three of these countries the role that natural resources (timber, diamonds and oil) have played in contributing, ironically, to poverty is a priority issue for Trocaire. The members of CIDSE are keen now to work in a more concerted fashion to bring the reality of what is happening in many parts of the world to serious international attention.

For many years there have been concerns over the growing power and influence of multinational corporations. These companies rarely provide even basic information about their financial interactions with governments in countries where they operate; governments are similarly reticent about the revenues they earn from these industries. This lack of transparency has allowed crooked officials and businessmen in many countries to misappropriate vast sums in revenue. The result is unaccountable government, corruption, social decay, increased poverty and the reinforcement of authoritarianism, which can ultimately lead to state failure and the spread of instability.

The two day CIDSE workshop drew on the experiences of partner organisations coming from South America, West and Central Africa, and South East Asia. In all cases the partners are dealing with the actions of Multinational Companies and their mining/resource exploitation work which too often is being done without due consultation with local communities and is destroying the environment. CIDSE, in collaboration with partners is planning to launch a major policy statement on Tuesday 23rd . This will be during a workshop in the Forum which will have none other than our own Mary Robinson who is now working for an international NGO focusing on the relationship between business and human rights. I will put the text of this statement up on the Blog hopefully by Wednesday if I can get access to email.