Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from mining communities have been encouraged to understand and interpret the national budget in order to ensure there is development in their areas.
This came out at a National Budget analysis workshop hosted by the Center for Natural Resource Governance (CNRG) in Harare, Thursday.
The workshop sought to build the capacity of CSOs and citizens from mining communities to interrogate the role of mining in the country’s economy and the resources the government dedicates to the sector.
Director for CNRG, Farai Maguwu, emphasized the need to know the various stakeholders in the mining sector and the roles they play so that CSOs may know whom to engage, when and how to engage them.
In a sideline interview with CITE, he said the workshop’s objectives sought to look into issues of value addition to minerals as well as the impact of the mining activity on communities.
Maguwu said it is important to scrutinise the budget and assess whether it addresses the concerns of the affected community.
Another participant, Fungai Nhaitai of Young Entrepreneurs Trust Zimbabwe (YETZ) an advocacy organization from Marange, said it is important that CSOs engage experts who can simplify jargon used in budget statements so that the layman can understand.
He added that it is important that mining proceeds be used to improve service delivery in areas from which the minerals are extracted.
Juliet Gudlanga of WONECA said it is important that the national budget process includes the concerns raised by women.
“From this workshop there are a number of issues that have been raised by women. These include the need for mining revenue to be used to improve the hospital and education sector,” she said.
