Ghana: PWYP Reacts to Criticism of Civil Society

Ghana: PWYP Reacts to Attacks on Civil Society

By Development Diaries
September 8, 2021

Publish What You Pay (PWYP) has called on the government of Ghana to categorically condemn recent media attacks on civil society members.

PWYP also urged the government to ensure that all civil society actors in the West African nation are able to speak freely on issues pertinent to the good governance of natural resource sector.

The alliance of civil society organisations (CSOs) working on extractives, anti-corruption and good governance had called on the parliament in early August to investigate a proposed deal between the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and Aker Energy.

However, on 12 August, a number of newspapers published similar reports in print and online, naming four persons from the alliance and accusing them of pursuing an ‘anti-Ghana’ agenda.

The report quoted in detail leaked conversations between the alliance members.

The PWYP Africa steering committee, in a statement, noted that Ghana has been a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) since 2007 and is compliant with the EITI standard.

‘Compliance with the EITI standard includes an explicit commitment to ensuring that “Civil society representatives are able to speak freely on transparency and natural resource governance issues” (requirement 2.5 of the EITI Civil Society Protocol) and to do so “without restraint, coercion or reprisal” (requirement 2.1 of the EITI Civil Society Protocol)’ the statement read in part.

‘In light of this situation, we call on the Ghanaian government to condemn urgently, swiftly and categorically the attacks in the media on the civil society alliance members who are signatories to the statement of the alliance in line with their commitment to the principles of the EITI’.

President of the committee, Christian Mounzeo, who signed the statement, said the committee stood in solidarity with all civil society members in Ghana.

‘It is the responsibility of the Ghanaian authorities to protect civic space, without which Ghana cannot maintain its compliance with the EITI, which would be contrary to the leadership shown by Ghana in terms of governance on the continent’, Mounzeo said.

Source: PWYP