Huffington Post: The Cleanup Can't Stop at the Shore
A proposal by U.S. Senators Richard Lugar and Ben Cardin would require any company listed on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to disclose payments to governments for access to natural resources. As Congress debates this amendment to financial reform legislation, and the best response to the BP oil spill, RWI Director Karin Lissakers explains the urgent need for legal reform to ensure extractive sector transparency and accountability. Read more ...Nigeria: Season of Uncertainty
RWI Research Associate Alexandra Gillies and Northwestern professor Richard Joseph survey the political turmoil in Nigeria during the illness of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, detailing the uncertainty among Nigerian leaders and the ways in which political tumult slowed action on vital issues such as crippling infrastructural deficit, local confict, oil sector reform, and the rehabilitation of democratic institutions in preparation for the 2011 elections. Read more ...RWI Contracts Transparency Work Recognized by Oil & Gas Journal
In an eloquent call to action, Oil & Gas Journal editor Bob Tippee notes the important role that Revenue Watch has played in maintaining an emphasis on transparency in extractive industry contracting. Drawing on comments from a recent speech to the Gas Processors Association, Tippee praises the insights RWI's 2009 report Contracts Confidential, and exhorts the industry to open contracts up to public oversight, and transform them from objects of secrecy into vehicles for building trust. Read more ...Indonesia Leads Asia Pacific Region with Plans to Implement Transparency Standards
Revenue Watch applauded the Government of Indonesia's announcement that Indonesia plans to implement the EITI. The presidential decree signed April 23 initiates several of the required steps to reach formal EITI candidate status. RWI praised Indonesia's leaders in particular for an "unequivocal commitment to go beyond minimum EITI standards." Read more ...EVENT/AUDIO: Revenue Watch Presents Crisis Recommendations at IMF-World Bank Meetings
On Sunday, April 25, the Revenue Watch Institute and several distinguished experts met in Washington, D.C., to discuss lessons learned from the global financial crisis and the steps that local and international actors can take to protect resource rich economies from future shocks. Guest panelists included Rabah Arezki of the International Monetary Fund, Ernest Aryeetey of the Brookings Institution and moderator Brian Pinto, adviser to the Managing Director of the World Bank. Read more and play audio from this event ...RWI Warns Developing Economies, "Don't Depend on Oil Alone"
ANÁLISIS QUINCENAL: Transparency and Extractives Update from Latin America | Español
Video: "Your Voice, Your Opportunity" Indonesia Campaign Raises Budget Awareness
EITI Board Sends Wake Up Call to Candidate Countries and Tests Its Own Resolve
Standard Setters Risk Putting Oil, Gas and Mining Companies Before Investors and Citizens
JOBS
Middle East/North Africa Regional Coordinator
Revenue Watch Institute seeks a Middle East/North Africa Regional Coordinator.
Revenue Watch Institute seeks a Middle East/North Africa Regional Coordinator.
PWYP Africa Coordinator
Catholic Relief Services and the International Publish What You Pay coalition seek an Africa Coordinator.
Catholic Relief Services and the International Publish What You Pay coalition seek an Africa Coordinator.
Senior Analyst—IBP
Cross-posted listing: The International Budget Partnership seeks a Senior Analyst for its Open Budget Initiative.
Cross-posted listing: The International Budget Partnership seeks a Senior Analyst for its Open Budget Initiative.
COUNTRIES
Angola
With large deposits of oil and diamonds, as well as natural gas reserves, Angola is among Africa's most resource-rich countries. It produced 1.7 million barrels of oil per day in 2007, and also generates roughly 10 million carats of diamonds and 26.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas each year. Angola's proven reserves include eight billion barrels of oil and 440 million carats of diamonds.
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With large deposits of oil and diamonds, as well as natural gas reserves, Angola is among Africa's most resource-rich countries. It produced 1.7 million barrels of oil per day in 2007, and also generates roughly 10 million carats of diamonds and 26.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas each year. Angola's proven reserves include eight billion barrels of oil and 440 million carats of diamonds.
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Iraq
Iraq, a nation of 25 million people, holds the second largest oil reserves in the world, estimated to exceed 300 billion barrels. While Iraq enjoyed a period of relative prosperity and modernization in the 1950s and 1960s, its more recent history of pervasive violence, mismanagement and abuse has denied the people of Iraq any lasting benefits from this wealth.
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PUBLICATIONS
Contracts Confidential: Ending Secret Deals in the Extractive IndustriesContract transparency is sorely needed to improve the management of natural resource wealth. In a new report from RWI, authors Peter Rosenblum and Susan Maples delve into government and private sector objections to contract disclosure and make conclusions about what information may legitimately and reasonably be kept confidential, and how civil society institutions can better confront the challenge of secret deals.
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Drilling Down: The Civil Society Guide to Extractive Industry Revenues and the EITIThis milestone guide provides step-by-step explanations of each phase of EITI implementation and a comprehensive review of extractive industries accounting. Using real-world examples from multiple countries, it illustrates the fundamental issues behind the EITI for readers new to the challenges of extractive revenue management. Drilling Down is now available in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.
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