Box 2. Ghana: African leadership and the importance of government involvement
In 2016, Ghana became the first – and, to date, the only – government in Africa to become a member of the VPI, having first engaged with the initiative in 2014. Ghana has an extensive extractive industry. Mining contributes 6 per cent of national gross domestic product (GDP), and the country is the largest gold producer on the continent. The government’s commitment to the VPI is an important part of its domestic security and human rights agenda, in a context of historically poor trust in and credibility of its security forces; legacy issues between the mining sector and communities; and widespread artisanal and small-scale mining.
Between 2015 and 2018, a US-based NGO, Fund for Peace, and the Ghanaian branch of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP-Ghana) implemented a programme of support for strengthening engagement between civil society, government and the extractives sector on security and human rights issues. This supported the development of an NAP as well as increasing education at a national level on the VPs, with a core emphasis on facilitating national dialogue. The programme also produced a wide range of educational resources on the VPs and their implementation in the Ghanaian context.
In 2017, Ghana became one of the first countries to set up a VPI in-country working group (ICWG). The group meets quarterly in the capital Accra to discuss key security and human rights issues in the Ghanaian natural resource sector, to support government efforts to implement VP-related programmes and policy, and to share lessons learnt and success stories on implementation.
Government buy-in to the process, and cooperation with other actors through the working group, has had a positive impact in Ghana. In 2017, under Operation Vanguard, a military and police joint task force was set up by the president to address illegal mining and other issues relating to land use and resource extraction. Initially, forces were deployed without human rights training, and there were allegations of misconduct and human rights abuses against villagers. Following a recommendation by the working group, officers were given pre-deployment training on the VPs, following which the situation improved. The fact that government security forces are trained in the VPs is an important point for signatory companies, accountable to international shareholders, who must work in partnership with the government on issues around land use and illegal mining.
In Ghana, VPI members AngloGold Ashanti, Newmont and Tullow Oil have worked in cooperation with the government to ensure the safeguarding of human rights around their sites. This has included using third-party organizations, and working with national security personnel, to provide training on the VPs, including to government officials and to the Ghana Chamber of Mines. In line with internationally recognized best practice, AngloGold Ashanti has a policy that all contractual agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with private and public security service providers make reference to the company’s commitment and obligations to the VPs, and detail its expectations from security providers.
In 2020, the ICWG of the VPs in Ghana received funding support from the Voluntary Principles Association to implement some activities outlined in the NAP. The four priority areas are public security training, private security licensing reform, security and human rights in small-scale mining, and coordination between the oil and gas sector and coastal communities.
