Revenue Watch Institute

Azerbaijan: A fisherman in the oil village of Bibi-Heybat, the site of the Caspian bay's first exploration of petroleum reserves by American and European investors. (Rena Effendi)

Drafting a Charter to Guide the World's Use of Natural ResourcesThe Revenue Watch Institute is collaborating with a team of economists and legal and environmental experts to draft an international Natural Resource Charter. This pioneering document offers resource-rich societies a vision and a blueprint for the future of their country's natural resource sector. The most important audience for this document will be policy makers in resource-rich countries, but industry, intergovernmental organizations, citizen groups, and importing states are also key players in the decisions that determine the outcome of a society's attempt to harness resource wealth. Read more ... | Español

ANÁLISIS QUINCENAL: Transparency and Extractives Update from Latin AmericaCarlos Monge, RWI Latin America Regional Coordinator, and colleagues deliver fresh news and insight. Issue January 19 covers rising fuel prices in Peru; Ecuador's broadening activity in the extractive sector; and Argentina efforts to increase gas imports from Bolivia. In previous issues, read about collective bargaining agreements in Chile and Venezuela; Colombia's advances in the hydrocarbon sector amid a regional energy crisis; domestic Brazilian negotiations concerning Pre-sal revenues; and a possible sale of shares in Colombia's state-owned oil company, Ecopetrol.

MULTIMEDIA: Oil, Power, and the Niger Delta

Shadows and Light: Oil, Power, and the Niger Delta

Revenue Watch is proud to present an original audio slideshow featuring images by award-winning photographer Ed Kashi. Through stunning photos and firsthand commentary from transparency advocate Asume Isaac Osuoka, this presentation reveals the stark problems of poverty, corruption and environmental abuse that continue to devastate the oil-rich Niger Delta.

In the 50 years since oil was first exported from the Niger Delta region, Nigeria has become the largest producer in Africa, earning $600 billion in oil revenues over the past five decades. But this historic windfall has led to crisis and decline, in what author Michael Watts calls "a gigantic failure of leadership and governance."
View the slideshow and learn more about oil and transparency in Nigeria …

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ISSUES

Revenue Transparency
The linkages between resource wealth, poverty, conflict and corruption–the so-called "resource curse"–are well documented. Public information and public accountability are the best guarantee that a country's resource wealth will translate into lasting benefits for its citizens over time.
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Expenditure Transparency
It is impossible to ensure proper management of natural resource wealth by looking exclusively at revenues. Transparent and accountable management and expenditure of public funds is essential to addressing the poverty, corruption and autocracy that too often plague resource rich countries.
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COUNTRIES

Gabon
With the recent death of President Omar Bongo, Gabon faces a stark choice between a legacy of corruption and a new chance to give citizens a role in the management of its natural resources. The need for change is especially urgent because Gabon's oil reserves are finite. Oil production has dropped 30% since 2000, while leaders have allowed the non-oil industries to remain underdeveloped.
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Ecuador
Since the inauguration of President Rafael Correa in January 2007, Ecuador has undergone momentous political change. In prior governments, confrontation between the executive and legislative branches bred intense political instability. Despite these tensions, Ecuador was able to establish a sound legal framework for transparency. However, a public perception of poor transparency persists.
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Contracts Confidential: Ending Secret Deals in the Extractive Industries

Contract 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.
Learn more about the report ...