For over 20 years, Oxfam has campaigned for natural resource justice, from defending land rights to lowering the impact of oil and mining operations on local communities. Our Extractive Industries Global Program, focused on oil, gas, and mining, is grounded in the protection of human rights and includes thematic programming focused on fair economies, gender justice, climate change, community rights and the environment, and civic space. This report provides an overview of global and country campaigns and highlights in the past financial year.
We put communities and partners at the center of our work and have achieved collaborative, concrete policy changes through global influencing, national legislative advocacy, and local community organizing. And our programming, research, and policy agenda is expanding to include emergent areas on economic diversification, transition minerals, and corporate climate policies.
The accomplishments reflected in this annual report are the result of dedicated contributions from diverse activists, civil society leaders, Oxfam staff members, and communities - all championing a world shaped by natural resource justice. Our success is not ours alone, but made through local-to-global influencing with people that often put everything on the line.
It goes without saying that our campaigning comes with challenges, setbacks, and threats. We navigate increasingly hostile civic terrain as we challenge powerful, entrenched interests that are often resistant to change. With your support and the continued leverage of our global structure we can move forward in our fight against injustice and inequality.
With over 50 staff members working across 30 countries and supporting a network of local partners and communities, Oxfam’s Extractive Industries Global Program continues to expand, learn, and amplify our global impact. Our work is supported by individual Oxfam contributors, foundations, and government donors. We are deeply thankful for the continued support of the Ford Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, and Open Society Foundations, as well as the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Danish International Development Agency.
Fighting for Fiscal Justice
Oxfam and our partners continued to champion accountability in the oil, gas, and mining sector by campaigning for fiscal justice and transparency. Through our research and advocacy, French energy giant Total and Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto publicly supported contract transparency. Historically shrouded in secrecy, contracts contain the fiscal terms and arrangements for extractive projects. Oxfam believes that citizens have a right to know the full terms under which natural resources are developed and sold. Total and Rio Tinto’s commitments were a momentous first step in creating a new global norm for transparency.
Similarly, Oxfam successfully pushed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to establish in their Fiscal Transparency Code contract and project-level payment transparency as international norms. Oxfam worked with partners and affiliates across the confederation on advocating for the publication of Country-by-Country reporting (CbCR). Royal Dutch Shell became the first multinational oil company to publish its country-by-country profit, employment, and tax data in line with the OECD model, and the largest corporation to have published any such data. We also worked with allies to encourage the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to adopt new requirements on contract transparency. Our policy and legislative agenda were strengthened with our research publications, including Examining the Crude Details, a groundbreaking analysis on petroleum producing countries’ use of their cost auditing rights to prevent profit shifting by oil companies in Kenya, Ghana, and Peru.
There was a debate and we convinced the Senegal government to publish it [Total’s exploration contract in Senegal]. There was nothing secret...There was an Oxfam report about transparency, we were among the top five so my board was very proud of it… I will continue to be a leader towards the governments. It is in the interests of the governments as well.
Patrick Pouyanné - CEO, TOTAL S.A.
Pictured: a natural gas facility outside of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Photo: Andrew Bogrand / Oxfam
Advancing Gender Justice
In the fight for natural resource justice, women must be a part of the solution. Along with our partners, Oxfam pushed the EITI to adopt new gender policy recommendations on women’s rights and participation. This was a major milestone for an otherwise gender-blind mechanism. Oxfam ensured local women’s rights organizations, including partners from Zambia and the Dominican Republic, participated in high-level advocacy in front of the EITI and other international bodies. Our campaigns to fight for gender justice in the extractive industries is supported by our growing body of evidential research. In 2019, we published Accountable to Whom which explores the intersection of women’s rights, social accountability initiatives, and revenue transparency in the oil, gas, and mining sectors.
Oxfam believes that revenues from oil, gas, and mining—if communities consent to these projects—should be used to fund important social programs that can lift people out of poverty. Social accountability initiatives can be a critical tool for galvanizing reform efforts aimed at ensuring that these revenues respond to local needs. Yet, despite their potential to strengthen women’s rights and promote gender equality, Oxfam research identifies how that these initiatives fall short when it comes to women and women’s rights.
Pictured: An Indigenous activist in Peak village, Cambodia. She is pushing a local mining operation to improve its environmental footprint. Photo: Andrew Bogrand / Oxfam
Defending Community Rights
Our global campaigns are built on the local-to-global strength of the Oxfam confederation and our many partners. Oxfam affiliates in Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United States partnered with Oxfam in Peru to support indigenous community demands for Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) and spotlight severe health and environmental impacts resulting from decades of oil drilling in the northern Amazon. Global advocacy meetings targeted US, Canadian, and Peruvian government. Following our efforts and those of our partners, the Government of Peru formally committed to conducting an FPIC process in the oil region and a delegation from the US Centers for Disease Control visited Peru and decided to offer targeted technical assistance. Oxfam and partners also filed a complaint to the OECD against Pluspetrol, the Dutch-owned company responsible for much of the oil contamination, and are advocating to ensure that the current operator Frontera Energy assumes responsibility for other environmental damages caused by its operation in Peru.
In Kenya, Oxfam and Friends of Lake Turkana, a civil society group in the rural Turkana region, hosted an international exchange between local community members navigating new oil development and established activists from Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, and Peru. The representatives discussed strategies for defending land and livelihoods, protecting indigenous rights, and strengthening consultation processes with government and industry.
This is so new for us. All we keep hearing is about the jobs. We need to get passports and go see firsthand what these projects mean when they are fully operational.
Exchange participant from Turkana, Kenya
Pictured: a community member from Turkana, Kenya at an oil consultation. Photo: Kieran Doherty / Oxfam
Protecting Civic Space
Oxfam defends activists who are fighting for natural resource justice often at great personal cost. Human rights defenders speaking truth to power in the extractives and natural resource sector face intimidation, threats of violence, incarceration – and worse. Our team provides direct communications and advocacy support to activists and partner organizations under government surveillance and threat. We have explored ways to build new narratives around civic space and natural resource justice, including launching a community-driven media campaign around the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline in Uganda and Tanzania, and supporting our advocacy with informed research. What will it take to stop the killing of land rights activists? explores how to respond to the staggering number of activist killings in Southern Africa.
Alongside our partners, Oxfam has fought for justice for environmental activist Berta Caceres, who was assassinated in 2016. In April 2019, Honduras’ Mission to Support the Fight Against Corruption and Impunity (MACCIH) filed a criminal case against 16 government officials on corruption and fraud. In September 2019, Oxfam hosted Berta Caceres’ family in Washington, DC along with a Honduran congressional representative. The delegation sought US government support to ensure accountability for Berta’s assassination, continue political and financial support for the MACCIH, and to raise concerns about increased threats to indigenous consultation in the extractives sector. The delegation met with the OAS Secretary General, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other leaders of the House, the US Department of State, Congressional staff, missions from Canada and Ireland, and with members of the media.
Pictured: Berta Caceres' mother Astra Flores with US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Photo: Andrew Bogrand / Oxfam
Knowledge Hub
Oxfam’s Extractive Industries Knowledge Hub promotes research, skill sharing, and learning exchanges. Like Oxfam’s other Knowledge Hubs, ours takes an approach to learning and innovation that leverages and amplifies the knowledge of our people and collaborators in the countries and regions where we work. Established in 2013, the Extractive Industries Knowledge Hub plays an important role as a convener, facilitator, and knowledge broker, ensuring staff and partners around the globe have access to the resources and technical skills necessary to succeed.
In collaboration with the Natural Resources Governance Institute (NRGI) and Publish What You Pay (PWYP), Oxfam convened over 30 staff and partners from 15 countries for a two-day workshop on using oil, gas, and mining data to influence decision makers and support evidence-driven campaigns. Following the internal workshop, Brookings Africa Growth Initiative, alongside Oxfam, NRGI and PWYP, co-hosted a two-panel public event Using extractive industry data to fight inequality & strengthen accountability: Victories, lessons, & future directions for Africa to showcase victories and lessons learned in utilizing extractive industry transparency disclosures for the wider sustainable development and economic growth agenda. This was a successful experiment in opening our learning process to the public and testing our lessons learned with a diverse set of external experts. The event opened up new avenues of collaboration: representatives from PWYP Canada and the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) who participated in the workshop undertook field research to produce a joint study assessing the impact of disclosures from the Caledonia mine in Zimbabwe.
Pictured: Elyvin Nkhonjera from Oxfam in Malawi presents at the Brookings Institute. Photo: Andrew Bogrand / Oxfam
Fighting for Natural Resource Justice Around the World
Latin America
In Bolivia, Oxfam supported the efforts of Guaraní Indigenous women and youth to defend their natural resources in the midst of agricultural, infrastructure, and hydrocarbon development. Oxfam also worked to strengthen Indigenous autonomous governance and management and promote active citizenship among women and youth in Charagua while supporting the Cavineño Indigenous peoples in their efforts to comply with the requirements necessary for them to exercise autonomous governance over their land and resources.
The Charagua Iyambae Autonomy not only gives us the opportunity to participate in political life, but also to exercise our full right to make decisions, including on the use of our economic resources. In this way we demonstrate that we women can take on roles equal to men.
Raquel Antúnez - Indigenous leader from Bolivia
Pictured: mountains outside of El Alto, Bolivia. Photo: Stine Heilmann / Oxfam
Oxfam supported the Together We Are Victory campaign in Colombia to denounce the extreme violence against women land and environmental defenders. In response, senior government officials in Colombia issued a joint letter to all employees of government agencies urging them to protect rural women´s rights.
In the Dominican Republic, Oxfam commissioned an economic analysis of Barrick Gold’s Pueblo Viejo mine, one of the ten largest gold mines in the world. The analysis informed an Oxfam campaign #NosTocaelCinco which aims to ensure that 5% of mining revenues reaches municipal governments around the mine, as required by law. Our partner CEFORMOMALI was able to secure a portion of the 5% toward protecting women’s rights in their community.
Oxfam provides support to the Xinca people in Guatemala to defend their territories. With Virginia Tech University and San Carlos University of Guatemala, Oxfam and our partners produced new research examining the environmental, economic, and human rights impacts of the controversial Escobal silver mine. With this data, the Xinka communities have bolstered their advocacy efforts. Oxfam has also worked to strengthen community monitors' ability to assess water quality and use scientific evidence to advocate for critical improvements.
Oxfam launched a new report and online portal to map the rapid expansion of mining, oil, and hydropower concessions in Honduras. Territories at Risk 2.0 builds on a collaborative effort among Oxfam, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH), and Clark University to document the location and possible impacts of over 500 mining concessions and over 300 hydroelectric projects on Indigenous territories.
Oxfam is part of a large civil society coalition in Mexico advocating for the reform of the Mexican mining law, which gives unequal privileges to mining companies over communities for access to shared natural resources, such as water. The Supreme Court of Mexico issued a landmark ruling in a corporate accountability case filed by the Project on Organizing, Development, Education, and Research (PODER) with Oxfam support. The case litigated what has been referred to as the worst ecological disaster in Mexican history: the Buenavista Copper Mine, which spilled 40 million cubic meters of heavy metals into the Rio Sonora causing massive ecological damage. In a landmark ruling, the court determined that private sector actors can be held accountable for committing human rights abuses in Mexican courts.
In Nicaragua, Oxfam along with our long-time partner Centro Humboldt continue to focus on ending the criminalization of human rights defenders and demanding companies and government respect Indigenous and rural community rights. Since 2018, 14 anti-mining community leaders have been forced into exile, basic environmental safeguards have been wound back in an effort to fast-track mining approvals, and unfair tax breaks have been offered to mining companies in order to attract investment. These rights rollbacks were featured in the report Regional Transparency and Access to Information in the Extractive Industries of Latin America and the Caribbean and were elevated by Oxfam and partners at the 33rd session of the Universal Periodic Review on Human Rights.
In Peru, Oxfam funded a study on the costs of addressing heavy metal poisoning in areas near five oil and mining projects. Building on this report, Oxfam established the Metal Doesn't Hurt, Heavy Metals Do campaign, which occurred ahead of the start to consultation at the polluted oil block 192. Oxfam collaborated with heavy metal bands to call attention to Indigenous tribes living with high levels of heavy metals in their blood. The campaign resulted in Peru’s Ministry of Health including Amazonian communities in their heavy metals action plan, plus $6 million for the provision of health care in the impacted region, and the creation of a multi-agency committee to respond to the crisis. Working closely with allies like the Indigenous women’s organization ONAMIAP, Oxfam also successfully advocated for new gender provisions in national legislation on peasant communities and on climate change.
Shredding Injustice
Heavy metal rockers are joining indigenous peoples to try and save a generation of children and families from the devastating effects of heavy metal poisoning.
Pictured: Shredding injustice with Peruvian band M.A.S.A.C.R.E in Lima. Photo: Jeff Deutsch/Oxfam
North America and Europe
Oxfam and our partners supported the passage of new impact assessment legislation in Canada, Bill C-69, which requires intersectional gender analysis in all federal reviews of major development projects, such as mines and pipelines. Oxfam also hosted a delegation of women human rights defenders from Mexico and Guatemala to discuss the impacts of Canadian mining companies with Canadian government officials, civil society, and the newly appointed Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise.
In France, Oxfam continued to engage with Total on its fiscal transparency commitments and encouraged the French energy company to sign onto the B Team responsible tax principles. Oxfam also undertook an analysis of the Payments to Governments reports submitted by 12 companies who are listed or incorporated in France and successfully encouraged extractive companies to support contract transparency.
Working closely with PWYP coalition allies in the US and around the world, Oxfam continued its fight for strong anti-corruption regulations for oil, gas, and mining companies in the United States. Oxfam analyzed and produced a legal submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with counsel EarthRights International in response to weak draft regulations, and worked with PWYP US to facilitate comments and submissions from PWYP partners in 12 countries.
Africa
Building on their successful "one percent" campaign that called for the establishment of a local development mining fund in Burkina Faso, Oxfam and partners continued advocating for mining companies to pay into the fund. This fund, with support from Oxfam, became operational in 2019.
In Ghana, Oxfam continued to push for good governance and accountability in the growing oil and gas sector and expanded its work on gender justice. Oxfam and the Africa Center for Energy Policy encouraged the Ministry of Energy to reserve a five percent quota for women and people with disabilities to receive training in the oil and gas sector. In the mining sector, Oxfam worked with the Ghana Chamber of Mines on access to supply chains for women and people with disabilities.
Oxfam promoted transparent and accountable revenue generation and public financial management in Kenya – particularly in Turkana County, where oil exploitation comes with major expectations and challenges. Oxfam successfully advocated for the inclusion of all community members, including pastoralists, in the stakeholder engagement plan developed by the British energy company Tullow Oil.
Oxfam utilized contract analysis in Malawi to advocate for improved public benefits from resource extraction and continued to build the capacity of communities in Phalombe and Karonga in their campaigns for information and consultation on mining projects. Oxfam also continues to support women in the extractive space and helped finalize the strategic plan and constitution of the Malawi Women in Mining Association.
Oxfam is working to strengthen the legislative and regulatory environment for oil and gas exploitation in Mozambique, including bolstering the resettlement and compensation framework for impacted communities. Oxfam also commissioned an economic analysis and revenue forecast of the Italian energy company ENI’s Coral South Floating Liquid Natural Gas project. Oxfam is using this analysis to influence debates on national debt and the use of future gas revenues, and presented preliminary findings of the analysis to government officials, civil society organizations, development agencies and relevant oil and gas companies, in collaboration with the Norwegian embassy in Maputo.
Together with the Network of Organizations for Transparency and Budget Analysis in Niger, Oxfam helped implement a study on the effectiveness of the 15% mining and oil returns to regions impacted by these activities. This work has continued in parallel with Oxfam’s ongoing struggle against the repression of environmental and civic activists. Following the arrests of activists, Oxfam and its allies led a coordinated effort to push the government of Niger to release the detainees and protect civil society space, while advocating for donor governments and international financial institutions to intervene.
In Nigeria, Oxfam supported the establishment of a Beneficial Ownership register by the Nigerian Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative, and worked with the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre to promote regulation that will curb illicit financial flows in the extractive sector.
We have made a significant contribution in building a critical mass of active citizens capable of influencing mineral resource governance and public financial management in Senegal. Our collaboration with PWYP Senegal resulted in community forums organized in five mining and petroleum resource regions that gave citizens the knowledge to engage and understand the economic opportunities and legal framework for managing the extractive sector. Oxfam and our partner Forum Civil also held integrity workshops with Members of Parliament, the Ministry of Petroleum, and the Ministry of Fisheries.
It is estimated that Sierra Leone loses $225 million per year through tax avoidance, transfer mispricing, and illicit financial flows from the extractive sector. With this in mind, Oxfam co-hosted with the President of Sierra Leone the High-Level Dialogue on Reducing Inequality through Progressive Tax in Africa. Oxfam also conducted a study on property tax concessions to inform the review of the Mines and Minerals Act to assist local municipalities in increasing their fair share of revenue.
Oxfam continued to work closely with our partner Mining Affected Communities United in Action in South Africa to defend the rights of people affected by commercial mining and support their efforts to hold the powerful to account. Oxfam and partners held FPIC workshops with traditional leaders and local government in the country’s mining provinces and supported a number of activists facing strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP suits). Oxfam continued its support for the African Queen Warrior’s Feminist Movement, including mobilizing women from mining affected communities to demand their rights through a local campaign.
Data “animators” supported by Oxfam in Tanzania looked at company and local government declarations, and from this work were able to discover payment discrepancies. Their work found that some communities had not received a fair share of gas revenues from the district government, and from that discovery, they were able to use this data to advocate for the missing funds. As a result, animators received a commitment from the Kilwa District Council to return funds and Oxfam’s efforts alongside that of our partner established the payment of thousands to Songosongo village and a commitment to pay the outstanding amounts.
In Uganda, Oxfam is identifying risks to government revenue from pipeline development and oil production. The Oxfam team met with the president of Uganda to discuss findings and concerns. Oxfam is also conducting a community-based Human Rights Impact Assessment for the proposed East African Crude Oil pipeline with partners Civic Response on Environment and Development and Global Rights Alert. The report will inform Oxfam’s advocacy in support of impacted communities.
Oxfam has continued to advocate for a mineral sharing mechanism for Zambia, while also building the capacity of mining-impacted communities to secure a fair deal for their resources and monitor the flows of money from extractive projects. Oxfam worked with communities and civil society organizations on securing a fair share of sub-national payments, with convenings in Zambezi and Sinazongwe districts. This led community members to critically question their local area councilors on potential community benefits from mining activities – an important first step in ensuring accountability.
After the Zimbabwe government indicated its intention to seek candidacy, Oxfam has been committed to increasing public understanding of and implications for joining the EITI. Oxfam and partners supported parliamentary and civil society trainings on the EITI and continue to work with the government in espousing the benefits of increased transparency for the mining sector. Oxfam and partners also produced a model FPIC framework, as well as a model policy on the formalization of artisanal and small-scale mining, to influence amendments to the Mines and Minerals Act.
Asia Pacific
Together with partners, Oxfam released its report Buried Treasure: The Wealth Australian Mining Companies Hide Around the World which details how mining companies in Australia working in West Africa are "burying their treasure" using tax havens to hide their wealth. Oxfam and partners are calling for adoption of public, country-by-country reporting on tax avoidance.
The Highlander Association and Oxfam are focused on community rights in Cambodia. Together, we support local communities, especially Indigenous women, to challenge and demand mining companies and the government fulfill their commitments to villagers in rural Ratanakiri province. In response to our joint advocacy efforts, the Mines and Ministry of Energy organized a fact-finding visit to the province.
Oxfam is training community groups in India to read and interpret the agreements and conditions of public and private mining company projects. Oxfam also collaborated with Land Conflict Watch and with Rights and Resources Initiative to publish Locating the Breach: Mapping The Nature Of Land Conflicts In India and train journalists to report on land conflicts and the challenges facing local communities.
Oxfam and the Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability continued their efforts to ensure the active and uninhibited participation of civil society in the EITI, and in related extractive activities across Myanmar. Oxfam supported EITI members in their successful advocacy to change the EITI validation finding on civic space and convened the country’s first event on decentralization of mining, bringing together Union, state and regional ministers, companies, and civil society.
Oxfam has continued its support for the establishment of pilot EITI processes in Vietnam. Oxfam’s coalition advocacy work within the EITI has built new collaborative relationships between civil society, the Vietnam Mining Coalition and its members, and the Provincial People’s Committee of Quang Tri. Oxfam also campaigned for subnational revenue transparency and accountability, particularly relating to the expenditure of environmental protection fees.
For more, see: https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/issues/natural-resource-justice/