What does Caritas Norway work with?
Caritas Norway is the relief organization of the Catholic Church. We work with development and emergency relief programmes, initiatives to develop solidarity between countries in the North and the South, and to strengthen the social work of the 37 catholic parishes in Norway.
Why did Caritas Norway choose to become a member organization of PWYP Norway?
Financial transparency and accountability is not at an advanced stage in many of the countries we engage in though our projects, especially not in the extractive industries. Caritas was one of the initiators of the Publish What You Pay-coalition internationally, and many national Caritas-organizations are strongly engaged in working for a higher degree of accountability in the extractive industries.
It was therefore only natural for Caritas Norway to become a member organization of PWYP Norway. We think this is important in order to secure that more people in the South are benefitting from the revenues from the extractive industries, and to ensure that the extractive industry is being held accountable.
What is the added value of PWYP Norway for the Norwegian civil society?
Advocacy on financial transparency and accountability in the extractive industry is often of a quite technical character, and much work and expertise is needed in order to stay updated on the field. To many organizations, it is not possible to set aside sufficient time and money to do this. It is therefore very helpful for Caritas Norway to have such an organization as PWYP Norway, that is specialized on this field and functions as a watchdog on Norwegian politics.
