Video Summary of the Kick-off ”Social Accountability in Coal and Mineral Mining Governance” Meeting on 8-9 March, 2021. It illustrates how the meeting went and took place. It also discussed how the PWYP Indonesia will collaborate to conduct the Social Accountability in Mining Sector Project with all partners.
“…the world’s transition from the use of fossil energy to renewable energy cannot be separated from the role of the mining sector. Therefore, we should not forget about sustainable and inclusivity in mining practices to support the transformation of renewable energy. “
Balada Amor (World Bank Representative)
In line with the opening statement in the kick off-meeting namely ”Social Accountability in Coal and Mineral Mining Governance, which held virtually on March 8-9, 2021, this Social Accountability in Mining Sector project led by Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Indonesia with the support of the Global Partnership Program for Social Accountability (GPSA) and the World Bank aim to support the improvement of mining governance in Indonesia by involving all related parties, especially civil society in the licensing and revenue chain.
The extractive mining sector plays an important role in Indonesia’s development. Unfortunately, the mining sector is still identified with weak aspects of transparency, accountability and public participation, especially in the process of granting and implementing mining permits, coordination mechanisms between institutions, public complaint mechanisms, management of revenue from mineral resources, and regulations—as shown in the process of drafting Law Number. 3 of 2020 concerning Amendments to Law Number 4 of 2009 concerning Mineral and Coal Mining.
The project runs from November 2020 to March 2022, and will be implemented in three pilot areas in Indonesia, namely Aceh, East Kalimantan, and Southeast Sulawesi. Hence PWYP Indonesia is collaborating with several local partners: GeRAK (Aceh), Pokja 30 (East Kalimantan), and LePMIL (Southeast Sulawesi). Each local partner has distinct frame of reference and field of experience on the mining advocacy in their regions.
Besides, the project also involves national partners which have different scope of work. Polgov-UGM which is experienced and knowledgeable about extractive industries and natural resource management will provide training on improving governance in the mining sector and develop project lessons. FITRA is responsible for technical matters in the design and use of budget monitoring and analysis tools, and Awrago will manage the use of information technology facilities for monitoring, public feedback, and dissemination of information related to licensing and revenues, through newsletters that will be published regularly in this project.
This long process that involving many partners aims to one purpose, which is to contribute the improvement of the management and governance in mining sector at the regional level, particularly in the three provinces (Aceh, East Kalimantan and Southeast Sulawesi), through collaborative social accountability mechanisms.
Collaborative Social Accountability Mechanism
The problem with lack of transparency, accountability and public participation in the mining sector in Indonesia is identified and will be followed up through collaborative social accountability mechanisms – an approach that focus on citizen involvement which citizens could participate directly or indirectly to demand accountability from service providers and government.
Social accountability is a combination of information openness (derived from the Public Disclosure Law) and collective action for change. The tools that will be used in this concept includes participatory budgeting, tracking public expense, Community Score Card social audits, citizen charters, and Public Disclosure Information Act.
The usage of social accountability mechanisms in this project is expected to have an impact on increasing transparency and access of information to the public, improving complaint handling, and increasing accountability and citizen monitoring.
The framework for accountability in social accountability consists of users, policy makers, and providers which connected through a continuous flow, directly or indirectly.
In more detail, the social accountability mechanism has been mapped into a four-point mechanism which divided into several project activities. The first mechanism is participatory monitoring and the right to information disclosure. Emphasizing the strengthening of citizen rights (community centers) in monitoring and accessing information in mining licensing and revenue management. ICT will also be utilized to facilitate citizen in accessing their rights information.
“We hope that the mining management process in the GPSA project can encourage community involvement and women to become more active, both in CSR management or the issue of mining transparency itself.”
Edy Saputra (GeRAK Aceh)
The second mechanism is budget monitoring, including budget analysis and stakeholder scorecards. Meanwhile, the third mechanism is building the capacity of community through series of publication (newsletters, case studies or books) as well as experience and knowledge-sharing.
The fourth mechanism is dialogue and policy improvement. Talking about mining governance, it is inseparable from related policy makers and governments, from local to central government. Activities such as policy dialogues that discuss aspects of licensing, state/regional revenues, and governance dimension mechanisms (transparency-accountability-participation) are important in the framework of this project.
This project is expected to provide changes to mining management to become more transparent, accountable and participatory for civil society. Therefore, there are two success indicators in this project , those are the percentage of licensing problems and revenue management problem identified and to be followed up,
“We hope from this program, communities around the mining site are able to make their choices, especially regarding all policies that have a direct impact on them. Moreover, in the post-mining phase – where the mining is closed, these people are still left with the impacts.”
Buyung (Pokja 30 East Kalimantan).
Mapping Together the Issue of Mining Licensing and Revenue in the Pilot Areas
This project seeks to identify, explore, and provide an instrument to solve the problems related to licensing and mining management in Indonesia, particularly in the three pilot areas. At the kick-off meeting, the provincial partners also presented a mapping of mining issues in their regions respectively.
Partner from Southeast Sulawesi focused on nickel mining. They specifically highlighted the issues of mining land conflict involving the Contract of Work (Kontrak Karya/KK) holders, illegal mining, insufficient citizen complaint system, clarity of the role of mining inspectors, transparency of mining awarding process which deemed prone to bribery and maladministration, as well as non-tax revenue.
While in East Kalimantan, the partner focuses on coal mining issues, starting from the involvement of communities around the mining in planning and operations, different definitions of conflict between stakeholders (communities, government and corporates), violation of regulations by corporates, absence of corporate responsibility for social and environmental obligations due to changes of law, illegal mining, minimal community involvement in the preparation of Amdal (environmental impact assessment), also weak company compliance toward financial obligation.
“Actually, East Kalimantan has abundant natural resources, but the management and handling of its impacts are still arbitrary. Direct community involvement at each stage of mining activities is very low.”
Buyung (Pokja 30)
Coal mining also becomes the focus of the partner from Aceh. Among issues highlighted are lack of information openness, especially regarding the coordinates of mining areas which is deemed important for the community, law enforcement, compensation for community property land, implementation of reclamation, and distribution of mining revenues.
Next Endeavour
Mining sector as an important sector that drives development must be governed in the following principles: accountability, transparency and public participation. Reflecting on the results of the mapping of issues by partners in the regions, natural resources should be used for the people welfare. This can be achieved by increasing social accountability and inclusive mining practices for all stakeholders. Collaboration between government, communities, and private sector is needed.
Written by
Adzia Rizkika
Communication Specialist Awrago