Among our civil society partners in Africa are the members of the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Natural Resource Governance Consortium (STA-NRG) in Zimbabwe, which advocates for mining sector reforms to address issues such as limited transparency, lack of citizen participation in development decisions, and inadequate accountability in the management of Zimbabwe’s mineral resources. Other partners in the Consortium include the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA), Pact, Habakkuk Trust, and Silveira House.
Our pro bono volunteers in this project support our local Consortium partners’ advocacy by providing detailed review and analysis of laws, policies, and practices in Zimbabwe’s extractives sector that affect citizens across the country. For example, our volunteers’ work includes advising ZELA on proposed changes to local laws so that they hew more closely with international best practices in the sector – for example, the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) – in the hopes of nudging Zimbabwe’s government toward ultimately adopting EITI or comparable standards.
ISLP’s support to the STA-NRG Consortium is in its third year. We are grateful to our wonderful volunteers from Akin Gump, Alston & Bird, Clifford Chance, Hogan Lovells, Hunton Andrews Kurth, and Winston & Strawn who have provided valuable pro bono legal support to this initiative. This project is supported by the UK’s Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office (formerly DFID) through DAI Europe, and administered by the TRACE Secretariat.