Climate Change and Energy transition have become contemporary topics in recent development discourse. Climate change and energy transition present significant risks but also offer opportunities for extractive rich countries.

Effective governance of the Mining, Oil and Gas sectors is a persistent challenge around the world. If well managed, the sector has the potential to improve the lives of 1 billion people living in poverty in resource-rich countries. Poor governance of the sector can lead to corruption, environmental damage, and conflicts.

Agreements that are signed between a  government of a developing country and foreign mining companies to supplement or supplant the existing mining legal and fiscal regime also known as Mining Development Agreements (MDAs) are signed with the aim of assuring foreign investors that a developing country’s government will not change the rules of the agreement once investors put in their money and the investment starts bearing profit.

It is no doubt that whether you read articles or analyses related to extractives industry of Tanzania you will be bombarded with banal phrases such as ‘Tanzania is endowed with immense resources including hydrocarbons and solid minerals like gold, diamond, iron, tanzanite and natural gas.’ The main challenge for the country, however, has remained management of the revenues emanating from the extractives sector.

HakiRasilimali - Publish What You Pay Tanzania, a platform of civil society organizations working on extractives advocacy in Tanzania, has called on stakeholders to acknowledge, appreciate the role of civil society and preserve its space in the natural resource governance in Tanzania.

The call was made ahead of a national conference on mining, oil and natural gas sector in Tanzania aimed at "collaborative reflection on how this sector can effectively contribute to sustainable development in the country" to be held in Dodoma this week.

Although Tanzania has a mature mining industry and is Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer with revenues constituting 80% of the extractive industries’ 12% contribution to Tanzanian government revenues  based on data collected during 2016, the country scores 49 of 100 points and ranks 42nd  among 89 country assessments in the 2017 Resource Governance Index (RGI) on governance in the sector.