Oil Revenues Flow to Chad

April 4, 2005—Chad set in motion last week the mechanism to manage the oil revenue destined for Eastern Logone, where oil production is based, when the government-appointed Provisional Committee and local NGOs met to discuss the region's development priorities..

Provisional Committee members look on as the President of the Committee addresses NGOs in Doba.

Open since July 2003, the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline has been operating under an unprecedented set of safeguards that is making sure the oil revenues is properly managed and used to reduce rampant poverty in Chad.

A novel revenues distribution and management program adopted as law in 1999, broadly lays out that 10% of oil revenues must be put aside and invested for future generations.

Of the remainder, 80% must go to specific priority sectors, including health, education, and infrastructure. Fifteen percent goes to the treasury of the national government to finance general expenditures, while 5% goes to finance development programs in the oil production region of Eastern Logone.

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By the end of 2004, Eastern Logone had accumulated $4.2 million.

Now, the nine members of the government-appointed Provisional Committee met with local NGOs in Doba, the region's capital, to describe their responsibilities and seek the communities' views on priority uses for the funds. The Committee stressed that not all desires could be met instantaneously and choices would have to be made.

Together with local communities, the Provisional Committee and local NGOs will identify what development priorities should be undertaken first. They will also oversee project execution and evaluate outcomes.

While these tasks normally would fall to local authorities, regional elections to choose decentralized authorities are not expected before 2006 and the communities did not want to wait so long to benefit from oil revenues.

From left to right: Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly (Senior Program Manager), Paul Ngartelbaye (Deputy National Cooridnator), the Governor of the Eastern Logone region, and the President of the Provisional Committee, Ngardno Milengar.

Local Communities Clear on Their Needs

The communities already have put some thought into their needs. Their primary concerns are to improve access to basic infrastructure such as clean water, schools and clinics, and build a larger marketplace.

Women's groups are particularly concerned that women not be forgotten in the priorities, given the exceptional burden poverty places on them, such as fetching water, feeding their families, etc.

Local NGOs expressed their desire that the committee spend wisely and modestly on administrative matters, and asked to be involved in the monitoring process.

Next Steps for the Provisional Committee

The Provisional Committee, based in Doba, is composed of three parliamentarians from the oil producing region (two are women), two civil society representatives, two government representatives, and two members from the traditional village and district chiefs of the region.

In the coming weeks, the Committee will begin touring the region to explain its responsibilities and encourage the local communities to identify explicit priority actions to be funded by the revenues. It plans to have identified specific projects in all of the region's four departments by the end of June.