My visit to the Goldfields region in Western Australia offered me some lessons for Uganda...One important learning for me was the Royalties for Regions (R4R) policy formulated...in 2008...It works by setting aside 25% of the state’s mining and onshore petroleum income from royalties which is then channelled fund a range of social projects in the rural areas...In comparison, the Uganda government remains adamant to entertain any proposals to increase its royalty allocation to oil-bearing regions from a paltry 7%. Even those calling for the increment have no idea what royalty arrangements exist between government and the companies and therefore do not know how much they stand to receive when oil starts flowing...Coming from a secretive country, it was particularly impressive how easily...people shared information with us-both their successes and failures. If only our government could loosen up a little, and treat the media, civil society and the general population as partners in the development of the oil and gas sector, that would be a great start. [refers to Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines]