Coordinator of the National Advocacy Coalition on Extractives (NACE) in Sierra Leone has been elected Vice Chair of the Tax Justice Network-Africa, TJN-A, at their annual general meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.
Cecilia Christiana Mattia, who has worked in the international development sector for over 15 years, served on the board of TJN-A and is also a member of the multi-stakeholder group of the Sierra Leone Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (SLEITI).
“I think this is a big challenge for me and for tax advocacy in Africa,” she told Politico.
She joined the International Rescue Committee in 1999 as Programme Manager in charge of gender-based violence and helped establish the Family Support Units which is now a major redress mechanism in the country police force.
In 2005, she joined the International Human Rights Law Group, an American NGO which was later named Global Rights, Partners for Justice (GR) as Team Leader and later Programme Manager. While there she joined others to establish NACE of which GR was a member.
In 2006, when GR closed their office in Sierra Leone, Cecilia became the Coordinator of NACE where she is still providing leadership.
In July 2015 she supported the formation of OpenTax Initiative, OTI, a local media-led effort that works closely with civil society and academics, using advocacy journalism, to call for a fair, just, open, transparent and accountable tax administration.
Its founder and president, Tanu Jalloh, a journalist and research assistant with the University of Sierra Leone, said they were very happy for Cecilia’s new position
“We are hopeful that her ascension to that office will give Sierra Leone an opportunity to participate at the highest level of decision making in the global advocacy against illicit financial flows, corruption and negative impacts of tax havens on resource-rich but very poor countries in Africa” he said.
Sierra Leone is a small West African country with large deposits of especially iron ore, estimated to have over 60 years of mine life and a deposit of 12.8 billion tonnes. The country, with 7 million people, also has diamonds, bauxite and rutile but still remains one of the poorest and most corrupt countries in world.
Copyright (c) Politico 2016
