Mandate
The Coalition’s mandate is to ensure that civil society has a real voice in how Papua New Guinea manages its extractive resources. This means creating spaces for citizen groups, community organizations, watchdog groups, and other non-governmental actors to participate in decision-making and oversight throughout the PNGEITI process—the Papua New Guinea Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Its fundamental objective is to make the governance of oil, gas, minerals, and related resources more democratic and accountable. By engaging diverse civil society actors, the Coalition aims to balance the interests of the state, industry, and communities, ensuring that policy and practice reflect broader public needs rather than narrow sectoral interests.
A core component is promoting transparency of revenue flows. This involves shining a light on how much money the government collects from extractive activities, how those revenues are allocated, and how they are spent. By making financial data accessible and understandable, the Coalition helps prevent leakage, corruption, and mismanagement, and supports evidence-based accountability. The Coalition also advocates for the public availability of information about resource governance, including clear data on licensing, contracts, production volumes, environmental impacts, project disclosures, and performance metrics. Public access to this information enables citizens to monitor projects, assess governance performance, and hold decision-makers to account.
Inclusive dialogue with communities affected by mining, petroleum, and other extractive activities is another cornerstone. This means facilitating genuine participation by local residents and communities who experience the direct social, economic, and environmental effects of extractive projects. It involves listening to their concerns, incorporating their priorities into policy and project planning, and ensuring processes for consent, grievance redress, and benefit-sharing are accessible and effective. In practical terms, the Coalition pursues three interlocking aims: enhancing transparency and openness in the extractive sector; strengthening civil society’s capacity to analyze, engage, and advocate; and fostering constructive, accountable, and inclusive governance that aligns resource development with sustainable community benefits.
By doing so, the Coalition seeks to contribute to a governance framework where resource wealth translates into tangible improvements in public services, local development, environmental stewardship, and long-term national prosperity, while preserving the rights and voices of communities most directly affected. If you’d like, I can tailor this expounded version to a specific audience (policy brief, funding proposal, community outreach flyer) or adjust the emphasis (more on governance mechanisms versus community empowerment).
Objectives:
- Coordinate civil society engagement in PNGEITI and related governance processes.
- Advocate for transparent, equitable management of resource revenues.
- Support members with capacity-building and information-sharing.
- Publish accessible reports and meeting minutes to strengthen public accountability.
