PWYP members’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

As the world continues to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, PWYP members are responding and adapting to this unprecedented situation in several ways. In many PWYP member countries, we face collapsing oil prices, the need to rethink how we carry out our change agenda, and civic space being under increased pressure.

On this page you will find resources by PWYP members on their responses to the COVID-19 crisis, and its impact on their work and the extractives sector. This is a living web page and will be updated regularly.

Responding to civic space threats

The PWYP Secretariat has prepared a resources document on COVID-19 and Civic Space, available here. If you need to report incidents, please use one the methods below:

• Report incidents securely, via the LANDex platform – an incident reporting form to collect reports of sensitive, non-published incidents against activists. All information submitted via LANDex will be stored privately and securely. Cases will not be published on the platform. All information submitted will be reviewed by the Data Working Group of the Defend the Defenders Coalition and an anonymised, aggregated file of these cases will be made publicly available.
• Report public cases, via this Google Sheet – for non-sensitive cases that have already been published.

PWYP members resources

• PWYP members in Niger have faced civic space restrictions and threats – Statement on the arrests of civil society members in March 2020
• PWYP Australia’s thought piece on COVID-19 – “Unwrapping the importance of transparency during COVID-19”
• PWYP Zimbabwe / ZELA has shared a reflection piece on the impact of the health crisis on development programmes – “Real life challenges of programming in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic: A case for flexibility and agility in the development aid sector – Reflections from the South”
• PWYP Congo‘s position paper on the need to review agreements with financial partners, including the IMF (in French) – Notes de position de la Rencontre pour la Paix et les Droits de l’Homme (RPDH) et de la Commission Diocésaine Justice et Paix (CDJP)
• PWYP UK – the UK coalition has signed the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition’s Covid-19 Statement
• NRGI articles – Coronavirus, the Oil Crash and Economies: How Can Governments of Oil-Dependent Countries Respond? and When Oil Prices Drop, Corruption Risks Can Rise
• PWYP Indonesia – COVID-19 specific page (available in English via Google Translate)

Other relevant resources

• Statement on the COVID-19 response from civil society members of OGP Steering Committee – we encourage PWYP members to add their signature to this statement
• Open Government Partnership – Open Response + Open Recovery campaign
• ICNL – COVID-19 Civic Freedom Tracker
• Open Contracting Partnership – COVID-19 Resource Hub
• Accountability Lab – Civic Action Teams campaign
• Spaces for Change Nigeria – COVID-19 Responses in Nigeria’s Oil Extraction Zones – a paper in which they examine the multifaceted impacts of the COVID-19 containment measures in Nigeria’s oil resource extraction zones
• IGF – Mining Tax Policy Responses to COVID-19
• Southern Africa Resource Watch – Implications of COVID-19 for Southern Africa’s Extractive Industries Economies and Society
• EITI – Keeping transparency on track