Lusaka: We, the representatives of civil society organisations from eight countries in Africa and the Netherlands, namely Angola, DRC, Kenya, Malawi, RSA, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, having met under the auspices of The International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa (IANRA) and Caritas Zambia, having shared experiences and knowledge pertaining to the detrimental effects of extant mining legislation and practice in our respective countries, hereby declare our unflinching solidarity with our civil society colleagues in Zambia in their demands for the review of mining legislation to mainstream cardinal values of social justice, environmental protection, sustainable development and equitable benefits emanating therefrom for all Zambians.

1. Proclamation
   
   We hereby:
   1. Recognise the detrimental commonalities prevailing in mining operations in our respective countries impacting adversely on sustainable economic development and poverty eradication resulting from unacceptable domestic and international obstacles to effective taxation;
   2. Affirm that effective and equitable taxation is critical to the overall economic growth of our countries and, specifically to the socio-economic and political wellbeing of our communities leading to the strengthening of channels of political representation and government accountability;
   3. Commit to work together for reforms in the areas of mining and related taxation, resulting in enhanced revenues from natural resource extraction and processing for value addition;
   4. Having regard for the importance of tax compliance and accountability for tax revenues and expenditures, we:
      1. Call on the Government of Zambia and all African governments to commit to full transparency and accountability on tax revenues and tax expenditures;
      2. Demand the implementation of a Windfall Tax mechanism that would enable our nation to benefit from inordinate profits generated by high prices for our commodities, inclusive of previous accruals;
      3. Encourage the Government of Zambia to implement already existing revenue sharing mechanism of proceeds from mining operations;
      4. Call on the Government of Zambia and all African governments to suspend or revoke mining licences of non tax compliant mining companies;
      5. Call on the Government of Zambia and all African governments to remove all tax exemptions for multinational corporations;
      6. Urge revenue authorities to simplify the tax code and reduce the compliance burden;
      7. Demand that the Government of Zambia should not allow companies to use hedging for tax planning purposes;
      8. Commit to ongoing research and advocacy with regard to the impacts of mining tax policies on men, women and vulnerable groups.



2. Revenues from mines and mineral
   
   
   1. Having regard for the importance of strong governance to ensure African governments benefit from natural resource extraction we:
      1. Note the power and information asymmetry between African governments and multinational companies in negotiating fair contracts and the lack of capacity and political will to determine appropriate prices;
      2. Question the lack of transparency in mining contracts across the continent which increase potential for bribery and corruption and undermine accountability;
      3. Call upon African governments to enact and/or implement fair and equitable revenue sharing mechanisms of proceeds emanating from mining operations;
      4. Call on African governments to audit and publish natural resource bases before signing mining contracts;
      5. Call on African governments to strengthen legal provisions relating to contracts, such that all mining contracts shall henceforth comply with a predetermined national legislative format; including measures to over-ride stability agreements that prevent future governments from re-negotiating contract provisions, possibly including limits to length of the contracts;
      6. Call on African regional bodies to explore regional coordination and harmonisation of fiscal regimes, and information exchange to challenge harmful tax competition in the mining sector;
      7. Call on African regional bodies to commit to South-South learning of successful tax practices in relation to mining;
      8. Call on African governments to adopt and enforce the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) regulations in existing mining legislation and to ratify the United Nations Convention Against Corruption;
      9. Call on aid donors to build the capacity of civil society in monitoring the activities of mining companies;
      10. Affirm that resources should be left in the ground for exploitation by future generations if current regulations are deemed too onerous by potential investors;
      11. Urge our governments to establish mechanisms to conserve adequate revenue gleaned from mining operations for future stability, growth and unforeseen downturns.

International taxation

1. Acknowledging the tax leakages which undermine the tax base of African countries we:
   1. Note that developing countries lose significantly more revenue than they receive in foreign aid as a result of international tax evasion and avoidance;
   2. Note the need for policy coherence among aid donors to take steps at the national and international level to challenge international tax dodging;
   3. Affirm the need for international and regional tax cooperation to challenge harmful tax competition and stop tax leakages;
   4. Challenge the widely held assumption that low tax rates attract FDI, leading to economic growth and development;
   5. Call on the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to include civil society in all processes to challenge tax leakages;
   6. Call on the G20 to involve African countries in international processes with regard to tax cooperation;
   7. Having regard for the need for greater transparency among multinational companies, we call on the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) to adopt a country by country (CbyC) reporting mechanism of key financial information for all listed companies;
   8. Having regard for the corrosive impact of financial secrecy in offshore financial centres we call on the G20 and the UN and other international Institutions to move towards a multilateral agreement for the automatic exchange of tax information between jurisdictions, particularly developing countries;
   9. Call on African regional and pan African bodies to initiate effective multilateral programmes for exchanging tax information to combat tax evasion;
   10. Call upon our governments to strengthen capacities to monitor and audit mining companies;
   11. Call on African governments to introduce legislation to make tax evasion a predicate offense under existing anti-money laundering provisions;
   12. Call on our governments to invest in strengthening the capacity for revenue authorities and to provide technical expertise in monitoring large taxpayers, in particular, transfer pricing issues;
   13. Commit to research the impact of current tax regimes and campaign for reforms at the international level to ensure that the taxing rights of African countries are not undermined by abusive international tax practices;
   14. Call on African parliamentarians to take an active role in enhancing revenue transparency in the extractive sectors and championing for good governance in the management of natural resources of Africa.
   15. Call on Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in Africa to play an active role in enhancing transparency on tax revenues and tax expenditures as well as monitoring and applying pressure for the implementation of audit recommendations.

We hereby unflinchingly avow our commitment to the issues raised above and pledge our ongoing support on the same at the IANRA Solidarity Meeting on Mining Taxation and Development held in Lusaka on 27^th - 29^th September 2010.

For and on behalf of the International Alliance on Natural Resources in Africa