PWYP Annual Report 2020

2020 was highly anticipated at Publish What You Pay (PWYP), as the first year of implementing our new five-year strategy, Vision 2025. The strategy defines our people-centred agenda for the extractive sector through four goals: to make PWYP better informed, more influential, widely heard and well connected across our network. But Covid-19 shifted the ground under all our feet.

The pandemic has had devastating impacts on people, communities and economies around the world. It has also accelerated worrying trends in closing civic space, with many governments passing more restrictive laws, curbing fundamental liberties in the name of protecting public health. Meanwhile, lower oil demand with declining prices and mining supply chain disruptions provided a taste of what is to come as the climate crisis takes hold.

It’s a bleak picture. But against the odds, as they have always done, PWYP members around the world have risen to the challenge.

At the international secretariat, we sought to emulate the fortitude and ingenuity of our members, quickly adapting to ensure our global movement remained supported and effective. We rapidly repurposed core funding originally intended for in-person events into subgrants to provide direct support to PWYP coalitions. And, like many organisations, we shifted quickly to online events and meetings to maintain a dynamic movement, sharing learning and coordinating our actions.