Strengthening democracy from the ground up
When TI–Kenya started engaging with the local people in Kwale, they recognised a rich and diverse fabric of civil society, with over 40 community-based organisations. However, a lack of cohesion undermined their capacity to represent the needs of the local people in the CDA negotiation process. Some groups were perceived to be too closely aligned with political or special interests. There was mistrust and miscommunication.
TI–Kenya decided the first step forward was to get the community groups to speak to each other. The Chapter recognised that in order for the community groups to better represent the community’s needs, they needed to speak to each other more, understand each other better, trust each other more, and find common ground. Supporting community-based organisations to work better together would strengthen their ability to participate in the negotiation of the CDA. This would help reduce the risks of corruption in the process and ensure the CDA provides greater benefit to the people of Kwale.
TI–Kenya built a network of local organisations that work on mining – called the Kwale Mining Alliance (KMA) – and organised a series of forums that brought together representatives from Base Titanium, members of local, state and national government, civil society and community groups. TI–Kenya created a space where they could openly discuss their priority concerns, and how they can work collaboratively to fix them. For TI-Kenya, it was important to bring together people from different sectors to share their different points of view. Significantly, TI–Kenya also underlined the importance of including women’s groups – recognising that too often women’s needs, perspectives and voice are sidelined in discussions involving the mining sector, despite the significant impacts of mining and corruption on women.
Having brought the groups together, TI-Kenya then facilitated the establishment of a series of core working groups within the KMA. The working groups are local, issues-based taskforces that collectively decide how they would continue to work together and what issues they would advance.
Members of the working group meet regularly to discuss pertinent issues. They also use Whatsapp and social media to engage actively on the CDA process, among other issues.
‘The CDA process has taken very long to come to fruition and understandably, everyone would like to see the community begin to reap the benefits of development sooner rather than later, this is all the more reason why due care should be taken to ensure that community is adequately consulted and involved’ said one member of local civil society group from the Kwale Mining Alliance.
‘One common observation I made in that [stakeholders] forum was lack of active participation by members representing the community in the CDA [Committee] (PWD, youth, women and elders) (…) The leadership of the CDA [Committee] must find a way of activating and encouraging all members to have a meaningful and active participation’ said another member of the Kwale Mining Alliance.
At the same time, TI–Kenya is working to make information about mining clearer and more accessible to the members of the working groups and the wider public. This includes raising awareness about people’s right to be consulted by mining companies about a proposed mining or exploration project, their right to see honest information about a mine’s expected environmental and social impact, and their right to negotiate better outcomes. With more transparent information, people can also hold decision-makers to account. People have a valuable role to play in monitoring the impacts of a mine and reporting corruption and misconduct.
Importantly, this approach builds democracy from the ground up. It is a sustainable and self-sustaining model that builds and connects the latent power of local civil society and enables them to better represent the community over the longer-term. Each group contains representatives from government, mining companies, and civil society and this approach has successfully bridged previously fractured relationships between communities and mining companies.
