African "artificial economic growth" and the need of TRANSPARENCY to transform lives at LOCAL level...

Economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa will reach 5.2 per cent in 2014, according to a new World Bank report, due to the continent's development of natural resources and infrastructure. 

At the same time, tax avoidance and opaque natural resource deals costs Africa around 30 billion of Euros annually, according to the 2013 Africa Progress Report. That's twice as much as the continent receives in aid.

This is a huge development opportunity for the big players of the market like the foreign governments and capitals, but as we know, normal citizens at the local level are not receiving the benefits of this "development" mainly because of corruption and the mismanagement of revenues.

Following the excitement of this "development", the question remains about how to make transparency work for sustainable development, particularly for the local communities living closest to the natural resources reserves and projects.

Making transparency more relevant to local communities could increase its potential to deliver sustainable development and alleviate poverty within resource-dependent countries. 

Three key challenges must be overcome to eliminate the current disadvantage situation of local communities in Africa: 

1. Accessing and analysing information: Communities frequently complain that they can't access the information they really need. Better project reporting understandable at all levels and a participatory work involving all of the stakeholder from the beginning are just a couple of ways or examples to address this issue.
2. Lack of support and engagement: Local and national institutions suffers from the same challenges, including the fluctuating of political authorities, lack of capacity among government and civil society stakeholders, lack of consistent financial support, and lack of meaningful engagement with local communities. 
3. Working in insolation: Much more could be done to link up with tax reform efforts, environmental protection initiatives, corporate social investment programmes (community development spending), and efforts to address major corruption issues with significant local impact.