Considering that extractive industries are an important source of revenues for many African countries but these revenues to date have not led to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction.

Recognizing that the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), promoted by the international community, has remained largely at the level of formal sign-up and not full implementation in African countries,

In view of the challenges to existing and potential civil society networks, and the worrying circumstances of civil society in some countries,

We, the participants of the regional workshop of “Publish What You Pay”, representing Angola, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Guinea (Conakry), Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone and Chad, meeting in Kribi, Cameroon from 3 to 5 December 2005 to develop a regional strategy for the promotion of transparency and good governance in the management of natural resource revenues:

1. Decided to:

 Formalize the network of civil society organizations from Western and Central Africa in order to develop exchanges and thus strengthen our cooperation;

 Constitute an ad hoc committee to devise an institutional structure capable of promoting the campaign in the Gulf of Guinea;

 Pursue the creation of national PWYP coalitions in those countries where they do not exist yet and reinforce existing ones;

 To actively participate in the EITI process in their own countries;

 Support any initiative that will foster the revival of civil society in those countries where freedom of association is denied (notably Equatorial Guinea and Gabon);

2. Recommend:

To the International Coalition of the PWYP campaign to:

 Intensify advocacy efforts towards international financial institutions and governments in order to ensure that payments made by extractive companies to resource-rich developing countries contribute to poverty reduction;

 Further invest in capacity building of civil society organizations for a more effective and informed participation in ongoing transparency initiatives;

To the governments of resource-rich African countries to:

 Consider transparency initiatives as an opportunity to create the conditions for better management of extractive revenues, which ought to contribute to the alleviation of poverty and sustainable development;

 Join the EITI and abide by its minimum criteria, notably the active involvement of civil society representatives;

To the governments of extractive companies’ home countries operating in the Gulf of Guinea to:

 Adopt and enforce legislative requirements on transparency of payments by companies to host country governments, which will contribute to the fight against corruption and mismanagement of revenues;

 Use the principles and minimum criteria of EITI as a basis for dialogue in their bilateral and multilateral cooperation;

To the International Financial Institutions (World Bank and IMF) to:

 Continue supporting the implementation of transparency initiatives in resource-rich developing countries in Africa;

To the international financial and technical partners of civil society organizations in the Gulf of Guinea to:

 Coordinate their support, in order to guarantee its sustainability over time;

 Back the activities of national and regional PWYP coalitions in Africa.

To all stakeholders to:

 Express their solidarity to the representatives of civil society in the region, often targets of threats and intimidations because of their commitment to the promotion of good governance, human rights and transparency initiatives.

 Support the mobilization against the plan of the Government of Chad to review Law OO1 on the management of oil revenues, widely regarded as a model for the promotion of transparency.

Kribi, Cameroon, 5 December 2005