Parliamentary Capacity Building

With the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, RWI is launching a series of parliamentary capacity-building projects that aim to improve the capacity of legislatures to oversee the executive's collection and use of extractive revenues.

To date the international extractive industries transparency movement has had considerable success in engaging governments, industry and civil society. Parliaments and legislatures, on the other hand, have been left mostly on the sidelines. The Revenue Watch Institute believes that the transparency and accountability movement will be effective over the long term only if legislatures, which have critical government and budget oversight responsibilities, are also engaged. Legislatures are a vital link between extractive revenues that flow to the state and the allocation and use of these funds for the public benefit.

As part of our efforts to promote more accountable governance of the extractive sector, RWI will launch a three-year program in 2008 to strengthen the capacity of parliaments in sub-Saharan Africa to oversee the management of natural resources. Countries will be chosen in early 2008 after initial scoping is completed. This effort will not only attempt to build the technical skills of legislators but also to enhance communication and collaboration among legislators, civil society and the executive on extractive development issues. Civil society partners can help inform legislatures and provide vital political backing for proper oversight. Reform-minded legislators can in turn be instrumental in turning activist critiques into constructive solutions.

Using the results of the initial scoping to determine target countries' capabilities and legislative oversight practices, RWI will design and implement a targeted technical assistance and training program to equip legislators with the tools for more effective oversight. RWI is building a rich library of model contracts and laws governing the oil and mining sectors, including tax structure models. RWI will offer legislators written materials and in-person workshops on key EI activities in their country/region, including oil/mineral industry structures, contracting, and licensing. RWI will ask the operating companies to offer briefings and facility tours. We will also work with legislators to more effectively oversee the terms of contracts. Staff and advisors will be available to offer expert analyses and commentaries on specific concessions, laws, transparency regimes and contracts. RWI will also offer detailed legislative strategies for poverty-oriented investment, and spending strategies for commodity windfalls. Legislative trainings will include oversight of income from extractive companies, primarily but not exclusively through their government's participation in the EITI. In many countries, legislators already sit on national EITI committees, but need more training to exercise their functions on these committees.

The objectives of RWI's parliamentary pilot projects are to:

• Equip legislators with the baseline knowledge, intellectual resources, and training to more effectively oversee the executive's management of the extractive sector
• Offer legislators models of success for transforming natural resource wealth into economic success
• Promote alliances between civil society partners and parliamentarians
• Promote cross-country and intra-regional exchanges between legislators to create a flow of information and ideas about improving accountable governance in the extractive sector

Revenue Watch expects that as a result of these pilots legislators will be better able to represent citizen preferences and oversee the executive's decisions regarding the exploitation of natural resources and the collection and use of revenue.