Revenue Watch Announces Launch of New Resource Center

On February 2, the Revenue Watch Institute launched its new online Resource Center: an interactive database of research, training and policy documents and videos concerning transparency and the management of natural resource wealth. This tool, which compiles a comprehensive selection of research materials from around the world in multiple languages, represents a cross-section of expertise, analysis and good practice.

The inspiration for the Center, available at http://resources.revenuewatch.org, came from frustration that each new country broaching the issue of translating their natural resource wealth into development for the common good had to "reinvent the wheel." The Resource Center instead offers a wide-ranging collection of materials that distill lessons and wisdom on responsible revenue management, maximization of natural resource wealth and transparent and accountable governance. The result is a flexible system that allows transparency activists, civil society, government officials, legislators, journalists, students and extractive industry representatives to access hundreds of documents on the management of natural resource wealth and benefit from the experience of their peers and other experts around the world.

RWI Deputy Director Suneeta Kaimal described how the Resource Center compiles and organizes existing and emerging knowledge. "Revenue Watch sits at the center of a diverse network of scholars, experts and practitioners," said Kaimal, "and a core part of our mission is to help that network share knowledge and collaborate to advance the transparency and accountability agenda." Read more …

Building Capacity in Francophone Africa

From January 29 to February 2, Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Africa organized a five-day workshop in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire on capacity building and advocacy for its francophone members, with attendees from a dozen different African nations.

Revenue Watch Deputy Africa Regional Coordinator Evelyne Tsague presented on core issues, including promotion of transparency and governance along the value chain, RWI's "knowledge hub" approachand the Natural Resource Charter. Deputy Director Antoine Heuty spoke on contract transparency, working with participants to map the access countries offer to contract terms, and discussing how they can use available information. In the vast majority of countries, civil society only has access to a select number of contracts through "backdoor" channels. Time spent analyzing a few contract clauses helped demystify contracts, demonstrated how activists can monitor contract terms more effectively and highlighted the need for a civil society guide to fiscal terms analysis.

Although PWYP Africa adopted a capacity building plan in 2007, it has not been implemented, and Tsague reported that the francophone coalition has been concerned about the lack of regional opportunities to expand their capacity. During the workshop international partners, including RWI, shared their capacity building programs. RWI is the leading organization working on sub-national and regional capacity building programs in the extractive industries. RWI plans to expand that leadership with a possible francophone capacity building hub in coming years to work with civil society and other partners to serve French-speaking African transparency activists and government officials. The workshop provided a first opportunity for consultation on the hub and participants provided feedback. Read more ...

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Empowering Oversight Bodies: Putting Tanzania’s Mining Act Under Scrutiny

This year, Tanzania's government is preparing new mining legislation for introduction in Parliament that would establish a new fiscal regime and legal framework to enhance the contribution of the country's mining sector. For the past ten years of implementation of the mining policy and law, the contributions of the mineral sector to the GDP reached only 2.7% despite becoming a top export earner. The discrepancy has caused mounting public concern for policy, fiscal and legal reforms to increase the sector’s contribution to the national economy. In light of these ongoing reforms in the Tanzanian mining sector, the nation’s Parliament, civil society organizations and members of the media sought expert support from the Revenue Watch Institute to increase their capacity to effectively scrutinize and deliberate on the proposed legislation.

From January 21–23 Revenue Watch, in collaboration with the Policy Forum and Norwegian Church Aid, ran workshops both with the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Energy and Minerals and with Tanzanian civil society organizations and media to analyze the proposed changes to the current mining act. The analysis focused on strengths, loopholes and potential sources of vulnerability in the new mining bill, and was divided into two parts: fiscal terms and governance. In attendance were eighteen of 20 parliamentary committee members,30 civil society organizations, media delegates and one legislator (Hon. Zainab Gama, the Chairperson of African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption, APNAC, Tanzania Chapter). The workshop built on the knowledge of fiscal tools, loopholes and sources of mining sector vulnerability that participants had gained at an October 2009 training workshop led by RWI. Read more ...

LEARN MORE

• Reforming the Mining Sector in Tanzania
• "Knowledge is Power": Empowering Civil Society to Make the Most of the EITI in Tanzania

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Iraq and Afghanistan Become EITI Candidates

In the course of one month, the transparency community was delighted to see both Iraq and Afghanistan submit applications to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). In both cases, the move will give the leaders and citizens in the two countries a powerful new tool in the struggle for regional stability. It also represents a strong commitment to sound natural resource management and increased public accountability for these embattled countries.

On January 10, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki announced Iraq's intention to participate in the EITI at a launch event in Baghdad attended by government leaders, members of Iraqi civil society and international groups, including the Revenue Watch Institute and the World Bank.

Iraq controls the world's second largest oil reserves and relies on oil for 90 percent of government revenue. By committing to the voluntary global initiative it has established itself as the Middle East's most important champion of the principles of transparency and accountability in the management of oil and gas resources.

"A successful EITI process will bolster a prosperous and unified Iraq," said Revenue Watch Director Karin Lissakers. She added that the EITI standard of government partnership with citizens in revenue management will be a powerful tool in Iraq's struggle for political stability. "This commitment to the EITI is a commitment to government collaboration with an independent civil society, which in turn builds public trust in government. Iraq's history of conflict, regional division and corruption makes civil society's involvement in the EITI process especially important."

RWI Program Associate Page Dykstra, who represented Revenue Watch in Iraq at the launch, added that RWI will focus on support to civil society, which all stakeholders have identified as the greatest need and most crucial aspect for success of EITI implementation.

An interesting aspect of Iraq's candidacy status is that the structure of EITI disclosure and reconciliation will vary slightly from other countries. Due to the structure of the industry in Iraq, these reporting requirements will cover payments between the government and oil marketing companies as well as other extractive industry companies. This adaptation may provide a model for other countries to expand transparency to this area of resource management as well, where there are concerns of the oil being sold at market prices but recorded slightly below to skim off the top. On the other hand, it is also important to note that this is only the first step for Iraq and the country will need to expand to include all material payments (such as signature bonuses with the producing companies) before they will be considered EITI compliant.

Just one month after Iraq's announced intention, its candidacy was officially declared at the annual board meeting of the EITI in Oslo, alongside that of Afghanistan, sparking optimism for the significant new opportunities to increase both economic and political stability in the Middle East and neighboring countries.

"Afghanistan's mineral resources are attracting growing interest from international investors, after decades of conflict and little progress in national efforts to rebuild," said Lissakers, referring to the open bids on three oil and gas blocks last summer. "Government adherence to the principles of transparency of payments increases the likelihood that the people will benefit from their country's valuable resources, and helps to build public trust," she continued. "We hope that Afghan officials and the international community will work together to safeguard the rights and freedoms that make the EITI dialogue possible."

LEARN MORE

• Afghanistan Agrees to Transparency Standards
• Iraq to Join Global Transparency Effort
  

RWI Advisors Travel to China and Mongolia for Exploratory Mission

At the beginning of January, Revenue Watch Legal Advisor Matt Genasci and Advisory Board members Robert Conrad and Joseph Bell traveled to Mongolia in conjunction with the Open Society Forum-Mongolia. During the five-day visit, which was organized at the request of the office of the Mongolian president, RWI met with members of the administration, various ministries and parliamentarians to discuss revenue management, contract monitoring and the possible development of a model contract for use in Mongolia's extractive deals.

While in Mongolia, RWI and OSF-Mongolia also held a public event to discuss contract transparency; contract administration, monitoring and enforcement; as well as the nation's recently-passed Human Development Fund Law—a vehicle for distributing revenue to citizens. Joseph Bell offered a critical appraisal of the law and its implications for pro-development investment strategies.

Mongolia recently completed negotiations for copper and gold extraction with Ivanhoe Mines. With the conclusion of the deal, the country is anticipating sizable revenues to begin flowing into country coffers. The forthcoming revenues further underscore the need for a well articulated development strategy. Read more ...

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EXHIBITION & PANEL: Fifty Years of Oil and Struggle in the Niger Delta

The Revenue Watch Institute is pleased to sponsor an exhibition by photographer Ed Kashi at the HOST Gallery in London. On display from March 8 through April 3, the exhibit, Curse of the Black Gold, documents the consequences of a half-century of oil exploration industry in a region that holds Africa's largest oil reserves, but offers a stark example of the perils of resource abundance. Kashi's images capture local leaders, militants, oil workers and villagers living in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Revenue Watch Nigeria Program Coordinator Dauda Garuba will be among several Nigerian experts to join Ed Kashi at the London School of Economics on March 11 for a panel discussion on the complex economic, security and governance challenges in the Niger Delta, examining both the politics of the recent conflicts, and the role of oil companies and local militants.

The photo exhibit will feature information on the Bayelsa Expenditure and Income Transparency Initiative, a pioneering collaboration in the Niger Delta between state government, citizens and energy companies in local governance of the extractive sector. RWI advised the government in the design and launch of BEITI and directly supports civil society participation in this initiative. BEITI is part of a wider set of RWI programs, sponsored in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which seek to improve natural resource revenue management at the sub-national level. Read more ...

A New Era of Tax Transparency?

"We are entering a new era of tax transparency," said U.K. Treasury Secretary Stephen Timms at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Forum meeting on tax and development this February. The meeting and the Secretary's statement reflect a sea-change in global thinking about the connections between taxes, transparency and development. Not only is improving tax transparency and collection now discussed as core to sustainable development, but governments, companies and civil society are working on how best to achieve it.

RWI Director of Training and Capacity Building Vanessa Herringshaw has blogged about the prospects for greater tax transparency and new commitments by the OECD in this area.

Global Financial Integrity Rallies Support for International Financial Transparency

This January, the Revenue Watch Institute added its name to the massive campaign by Global Financial Integrity to gather 100,000 signatures calling on the G20 to foster transparency in international financial systems. The petition, available at www.G20Transparency.com, aims to fight poverty and promote human rights by drawing attention to the great imbalances in outflows of money from developing nations.

These countries, often rich in natural resources, lose US$1 trillion dollars every year through funds illegally leaving their nations, crippling their economies and perpetuating poverty and corruption.

"The loss of money from poor economies that would otherwise go to provide health services, infrastructure, and other critical needs exacerbates poverty and leads to the deaths of millions of people," writes GFI. "The annual loss of hundreds of billions of dollars from the world’s poorest and most vulnerable economies constitutes one of the most pressing human rights issues of the new decade."

Revenue Watch applauds the GFI's initiative and its call for the G20 to address the loss of developing nations' wealth by: recognizing "the link between illicit outflows of capital from developing countries, absorption of those resources by tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions, and the adverse impact those flows have on poverty alleviation and economic development"; calling on the Financial Action Task Force to amend its recommendations to provide that the beneficial ownership of all companies, trusts, foundations and charities be made a matter of public record; and instructing the International Accounting Standards Board to recommend that all multinational corporations report their income and taxes paid on a country by country basis. Read more ... (Global Financial Integrity)

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RWI Continues Progress on Latin America Regional Knowledge Hub

After the successful launch of the Africa Regional Extractive Industry Knowledge Hub in Ghana last year, RWI is expanding this unique knowledge-sharing and capacity building model to another area of operations. Work on establishing a Latin American Hub is underway in Lima, Peru, where RWI Regional Coordinator Carlos Monge and his team are preparing an inaugural residential phase to begin this April.

Currently, the hub planning process is in the midst of establishing pre-course requirements for its Regional Diploma Program on Extractives. During this phase, which began in December, participants in upcoming Hub training sessions are completing preparatory reading and compiling background research on their country’s extractive industries. They will complete at least two research essays that will help them make an informed contribution to, and gain the most from, the lectures and debates organized during the residential course. Participants’ submissions will be assessed and graded by course faculty. Successful completion of these requirements is mandatory for all participants in the residential course.

Twenty-eight students from RWI’s and Oxfam International’s civil society partners in the region were selected from nonprofit organizations located in Perú, Bolivia, Ecuador and México. Read more ...

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Highlights of 2009

Over the course of 2009, Revenue Watch and our partners saw great strides toward more transparent and accountable management of natural resources. Through our innovative training approaches, cutting edge research, focused advocacy, grant-making and expert technical assistance, we supported systemic change to turn resource wealth into lasting benefits for citizens. Read selected highlights ...

Liberia Publishes Second EITI Report

Renewing its commitment to improved transparency in Liberia’s natural resource sector, the government of Liberia launched its second EITI report this week, covering the period from July 2008 through June 2009. The report discloses all payments being made by extractive companies to the government, as well as all payments the government has received from these companies. In 2009, Liberia became the first African country to validated as EITI Compliant to the standard of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Read more ... (EITI)

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Niger Delta Citizens Coalition Demands Budget Accountability

The Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform (NDCBP) recently undertook an investigation into regional development projects included in the budgets of four Delta states. NDCBP members analyzed state and local budgets and helped mobilize local communities to monitor the implementation of health and education aspects of the budgets. The findings of community monitors are included in four Budget Analysis Briefs and a forthcoming report that are helping raise public awareness of the importance of budget accountability in the Niger Delta region. Read more ...

VIDEO: Follow the Money

A new two-minute video from Oxfam America demonstrates the global consequences of your everyday gas purchases: where the money goes, and why citizens in oil-producing nations often don't see the profits when U.S. gas prices soar. This animated video is helping the Publish What You Pay-U.S. coalition, which includes Revenue Watch, Oxfam America and many other partners, as we spread the word about the U.S. Energy Security Through Transparency Act. Read more ...

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AUDIO: BBC Radio on "Why Resource Rich Countries Often Stay Poor"

On BBC's "The World Tonight" program, RWI Africa Regional Coordinator Emmanuel Kuyole and Radhika Sarin of Publish What You Pay International discuss the challenges of responsible natural resource management and how citizens and leaders from Ghana to Ecuador are working to make the most of their resource wealth. The segment also includes comments from international transparency leaders at the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the International Council on Mining & Metals. Listen to the full audio ...

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RWI Staff and Fellows Updates

Building Knowledge and Capacity through Fellowships

"Now I understand what my role is and what the role of every stakeholder and institution is, and I know that it is my right to advocate for and conduct activities that can help Uganda to escape the resource curse. I would never have been equipped if I didn’t take part in this fellowship." - Sophie Kutegeka

In 2008, the Revenue Watch Institute launched two groundbreaking, intensive fellowship programs. In contrast to our traditional investments in civil society organizations, the Capacity Advancement Fellowship in Extractives and the Petrad Fellowship seek out individuals interested in engaging in the extractive industries or starting a new direction of work. These rigorous programs aim to build the knowledge, networks and confidence of the fellows so that they can provide improved programming in their home organizations or coalitions.

Although these programs are still growing in definition and structure, after two years we can begin to observe the growth and impact of RWI fellows over time.

Capacity Advancement fellows spend six months in New York city pursuing original research, working alongside RWI staff, auditing courses and attending networking events. During the second half of their fellowship, the participants return to their home countries to implement a project based on their learning in New York.

Petrad Fellows take a challenging eight-week technical course on petroleum revenue management alongside petroleum ministry officials from around the world.

Karin Lissakers, RWI Director, said, "Revenue Watch considers it vital to help build tomorrow's transparency champions. The fellows represent the future of their countries' efforts to fight poverty and opaque business deals, and we hope they'll also be partners in our own work and that of our allies in the years to come."

Learn more about RWI Fellowships, our 2008 and 2009 fellows' work, and how to apply for next year's openings ...

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