Some journalists at the training
African countries have been urged to make sufficient investments in improving their negotiation skills to make the best out of their natural resources, particularly the extractives.
George Lugalambi of Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), who disclosed this, noted that the extractive industry is one of the most complicated and costly so the slightest sloppiness will mean perpetual and irreversible lose.
He gave the advice in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania during a training workshop for 24 journalists from East and West Africa this week.
The training is sponsored by NRGI and managed in partnership with Penplusbytes of Ghana, the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) and the African Center for Media Excellence (ACME) of Uganda.
The element of negotiating is what separates two categories of nations, Mr Luglambi said.
He explained that making a good deal in negotiation is a determinant of what the country owning the resources will get today and in the future.
This, he said, involves making the right decision at the right time which is guided by the Natural Resource Decision Chain.
The chain involves the process of deciding when to extract or not to, having the expertise to ensure a good deal through negotiations, ability to manage revenue and investing for sustainable development.
Kwame Ahiabenu of Penplusbytes Ghana further added that success in the decision chain is dependent on the Domestic Foundations for Recourse Governance in the local country.
NRGI and other organizations use the Natural Resource Charter to describe good governance along the decision chain.
This is however different from Industry Value Chain, which shows how activities are organized in the industry from the upstream through the midstream to the downstream.
The journalists from Ghana were drawn from DAILY GUIDE, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Ghana News Agency, Adom Fm, TV3, Deutsche Welle TV, Viasat 1 TV and Business and Financial Times.
From Fred Duodu, Dar Es Salaam