1. What does Norwegian Church Aid work with?
Norwegian Church Aid works with partner organizations in several countries of "responsible management of national resources for rights-based development." NCA and partner organizations in the South work among others with extractive industries, responsible for Taxation and distribution of revenue, for better environmental management and to safeguard the rights of local communities in relation to recovery operations.
2. Why did Norwegian Church Aid choose to become a member organization of PWYP Norway?
Publish What You Pay Norway has important expertise and a big international network within transparency in the extractive industries.
3. What is the added value of PWYP Norway for the Norwegian civil society?
PWYP Norway contributes to gather and coordinate Norwegian organizations working for more transparency in the extractive industries.
Norwegian Church Aid´s work in the north:
NCA works in Norway with political advocacy, including campaign work to improve Norwegian legislation to ensure greater transparency in the extractive industries. For instance hosted NCA and Changemaker "Siggy campaign" in 2012-13, which required country-by-country reporting, and Johnsen promised this in June 2012. Shortly before they resigned, the previous government published a notification bill about country-by-country reporting for Norwegian companies abroad. The proposal had been significantly watered down, but massive pressure from the NCA, PWYP, TJN, Changemaker and several other organizations made the Parliament agree on tougher regulations. With such rules it becomes more difficult for Norwegian companies to tax evasion in its field offices.
Norwegian Church Aid's work in the South:
NCA and partner organizations in the South work against extractive industries, responsible for Taxation and distribution of revenue, for better environmental management and to safeguard the rights of local communities in extractive operations. We are working on this theme in the following countries: Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Brazil, Guatemala, Myanmar, South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Angola.
NCA and partners established the civil society platform "Alternative Mining Indaba" in 2010. The platform brings together various types of civil society to discuss, develop capacities and collective action, and share experiences about the mining sector across the country. The platform has spread to a number of African countries, and also PWYP Norway´s partners in the South are participating in the regional and national platform meetings.
NCA and partners are also working on projects to improve the law and regulations relating to oil, gas and mining sector, to monitor pollution and ensure more responsible environmental management in production areas. The Local communities rights associated with mining operations have been a major focus for us. Rights for countries, the right to compensation and the forced relocation of communities are important for us.
Sarah Shija says:
”I came to Norway on 5th May 2009, as an FK-Exchange program participant between Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) Tanzania and NCA’s headquater, seconded to the PWYP Norway-campaign. The exchange was meant to be for 10 months, however three months before this period came to an end a decision was made between myself, PWYP Norway and my home office, NCA Tanzania, to extend the time for another year.
I wanted to extend my time with PWYP due to a number of reasons, the foremost being that I was just started getting to understand what the campaign is about and what the PWYP secretariat/coordination was responsible for in implementing the country campaign. What interested/fascinated me to learn more about was the lobbying/advocacy work that we were involved in. There was a lot to take in also with the TRACE-work and the webpage work. Also considering that this was a new and different working culture for me, I thought another year would be good to cement all this learning.
Now I am currently working for NCA Tanzania office as program responsible for the area we call Resources and Finance."