RWI Legal Analyst Addresses World Bank EI Week

From March 3-5, the World Bank Oil, Gas, and Mining Policy Division sponsored an Extractive Industries Week conference on the topic of "Improving EI Benefits for the Poor," taking on the topic of changing dynamics in the extractive sectors in the face of volatile commodity prices.

Panel topics included forming an integrated approach to extractive industries management, the donor perspective on EITI progress, an exhibit of images from Ed Kashi's book, Curse of the Black Gold—a photojournalistic account of the Niger Delta's extractive sector—and emerging players in the oil, gas, and mining sectors. Attendees included World Bank and International Monetary Fund officials, policymakers from the EU and other countries, nonprofit and civil society representatives, social scientists and academics, economists, lawyers, extractive industry consultants, and others.

RWI legal analyst Matthew Genasci spoke, with World Bank Lead Energy Economist Silvana Tordo and Cesar Polo, the Former Vice Minister of Mines in Peru, on a panel about the Negotiation of Mining and Oil Legal Agreements. Explaining RWI's multifaceted "value chain" approach to improving resource management, Genasci argued that a comprehensive approach to reform that addresses production and revenue generation through expenditures and development should be undertaken with a dual goal in mind: to help citizens receive better benefits from their governments, and, supporting this objective, to help governments reap better revenues from resource companies working in their countries. Effective contract negotiation—a key focus of Revenue Watch's work in Africa and around the world—is crucial to achieving both objectives.

"Most resource-dependent countries cannot afford for the guiding objectives to be simply project specific, or even focused on something as narrow as mineral sector development," said Genasci. "Rather, the overall development strategy for the country should be driving the negotiation and determining the objectives for the sector. Embedding contract negotiations into the overarching development strategy is crucial to ensuring that a country is getting a good deal and using its mineral wealth wisely."

LEARN MORE

• The World Bank: Oil, Gas, Mining and Chemicals Extractive Industries Week—agenda, video and presentations