Revenue Watch has supported Pacific Environment's activities in the Publish What You Pay (PWYP)-US coalition promoting contract and revenue transparency reform among export credit agencies (ECAs). The organization led the successful effort to persuade the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation to support the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Although the corporation will encourage, and not require, its clients to disclose revenues they pay to host governments, this commitment will help extractive industry-affected countries gain more of the downstream development benefits that upstream EITI reporting can create. Pacific Environment and other members of the coalition also worked with several congressional offices on an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to add transparency requirements into the reauthorization bill of the Export-Import Bank in 2006.

Pacific Environment led a call for revenue and contract transparency to be incorporated into the common set of demands of ECA-Watch, the international ad-hoc network of NGOs seeking to reform export credit agencies. Finally, along with the Bank Information Center, Pacific Environment helped push the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to adopt revenue and contract transparency reforms. As a result, EBRD adopted a revised energy policy in 2006 which includes a requirement for its extractive sector project sponsors to disclose revenue payments.

While these signs are encouraging, much remains to be done. RWI plans to continue supporting efforts focused on improving ECA transparency standards during the reauthorization cycles in the coming years.

For more information on the activities of Pacific Environment, please see www.pacificenvironment.org/.