The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) under the Episcopal Conference of |Malawi (ECM) has challenged the youth in Malawi to assume a greater role in demanding transparency and accountability from mining investors.

CCJP project officer responsible for Fighting Inequalities in the Mining Sector, Frackson Makwangwala, observed that there are still gaps in the signing of mining agreements, requiring active youth participation to address.

Makwangwala made the sentiments at the end of a two-day training workshop on mining governance targeting youth leaders from the Northern Region. The workshop was organized with financial support from the Norwegian Church Aid and Danish Church Aid (NCA-DCA) Malawi Joint Country Programme.

Makwangwala said it was sad that the extractive industry continues to be shrouded in secrecy despite Malawi being a signatory to the Extractive Industry Initiative (MWETI), a global standard for governance for a country’s oil, gas and mineral resources.

He emphasized that dealing with secrecy and corruption in the natural resource and mining sector is critical in creating substantial growth in national and local economies.

“This was a capacity enhancement training whereby we wanted to equip the youth with skills on how to advocate for transparency and accountability in the mining sector. We organized this training workshop following revelations that there is limited knowledge among the youth about the laws and regulations governing the mining sector,” he said.

Makwangwala added that lack of knowledge hinders youth from demanding or accessing information about annual revenue collected from mining companies, license details and environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) reports, among others.

He said they expect the trained youth to mobilize their peer and community leaders in demanding transparency and accountability from the investors as well as the government.

One of the youth leaders, Grace Mwambira, admitted that lack of transparency and accountability remains a big challenge in communities where mining activities are taking place.

Mwambira said the knowledge she acquired from the training will therefore help her in mobilizing communities in demanding justice from duty-bearers as well as investors.

“This training was an eye opener. From here, I should be able to mobilize my fellow youth as well as other community leaders in pushing for justice in the mining sector,” she said.

In his remarks, the National Resources Justice Network (NRJN) programme officer, Biswas Ismael, said time has come for Malawi to build an active youth participation to enable the country to maximize benefits from the sector.