We were delighted to learn that the Nobel Committee has awarded Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf one of three 2011 Peace Prizes. President Sirleaf, the first female president elected in Africa, was honored for her role in stabilizing Liberia after its 14-year civil war. President Sirleaf is also a longstanding RWI partner and former chair of the Open Society Institute in West Africa. Her stalwart advocacy for natural resource transparency has been an essential element of Liberia's progress building a more accountable government and combating poverty. Her policy efforts have helped Liberia overhaul the management of its mineral wealth and led to Liberia's success as the first African country to be ruled compliant by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
President Sirleaf played a key role in the renegotiation of two important Liberian natural resource contracts, with Firestone and ArcelorMittal. The revised contracts secured better terms for Liberia, increased transparency and demonstrated the importance of maximizing value from natural resource deals, in Africa and any resource-rich region. The government has subsequently negotiated or renegotiated several additional concessions, seeking stronger benefits for the Liberian people than had been the norm throughout the country's history.
RWI advisor Joe Bell, who worked on the renegotiations, recalled the president's leadership in the process. "The president knew the Firestone contract very well because she'd negotiated it herself in the ‘70s when she was at the Ministry of Finance. She was herself the most knowledgeable person," said Bell. "We made a breakthrough and got the first contract that I know of that publicly tied the price of the commodity sales directly to what the price was on the Singaporean and Malaysian markets."
In a forward to RWI's own report on the renegotiations, President Sirleaf wrote, "We aggressively pursued a better deal for Liberia, but we were also careful to make certain that the renegotiations did not threaten the viability of the companies' investments and represented an opportunity for a better long-term working relationship between the companies and government."
In 2009, President Sirleaf signed the Liberian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Act, creating a valuable model for countries seeking to enshrine and extend EITI practices in legislation.
"The efforts of President Sirleaf's government to break from the past and push hard both for transparency and for fairness has been an inspiration to other leaders in Africa and throughout the world," said RWI Legal Advisor Patrick Heller.
