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)

Revenue Watch and the EITI The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (www.eitransparency.org) is an internationally recognized mechanism to create transparency and participation in revenue transfers. Led by stakeholders from government, civil society and industry, this voluntary initiative calls for countries to publish their revenues and for companies to publish their payments.
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Contract Transparency CampaignA meaningful revenue transparency initiative leads to monitoring by local communities, continuing efforts to eradicate corruption, and ultimately to a reduction in poverty. This comprehensive approach requires more than the publication of payments by companies and receipts by countries. If citizens are to know whether such payments and receipts reflect a fair deal, the contracts on which they are based must be made transparent as well.
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Drilling Down: EITI Audit and Accounting Guide for Civil Society Revenue Watch is working with industry expert David Goldwyn to create a extractive industries accounting and audit guide for civil society. Due for release in spring 2008, Drilling Down will present an overview of critical industry and financial concepts, such as the different types of contracts used in the extractive sector, the types of government accounts and accounting systems, and the structure and flow of funds to and from government, all presented for a non-expert civil society audience.
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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

Iraq
Iraq, a nation of 25 million people, holds the second largest oil reserves in the world. But the pervasive violence, mismanagement and abuse of recent years have denied its people any lasting benefits from this wealth.
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Peru
Overall, Peru performs much better than many resource abundant countries in both revenue and expenditure transparency, thanks to a legal framework that guarantees citizens access to basic information about oil, gas and mining revenues and their distribution and usage.
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Escaping the Resource Curse

Too often, developing nations with natural resource wealth face greater conflict, corruption, and poverty than developing nations without an abundance of oil, gas or minerals. There are solutions to this "resource curse," but not without fundamental political changes.
Read more about Escaping the Resource Curse and order copies online ...