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June 2015 News and Analysis from NRGI

  • News from NRGI

  • 24 June 2015



Evidence-based Reflections on Natural Resource Governance and Corruption in Africa
In Africa at a Fork in the Road, a new e-book published by the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, NRGI’s Daniel Kaufmann undertakes a comparative empirical exploration of governance in Africa, with a focus on managing natural resources.

From Reporting to Reform: Eleven Opportunities for Increasing EITI Impacts
Based on reviews of 22 of the first reports under the new EITI Standard, an NRGI paper explores how countries are faring at meeting the more ambitious requirements and what those countries yet to produce reports can learn from others’ experiences.

Call for Applications: 2015 Media Course on Oil, Gas and Minerals
NRGI is rolling out this year’s training program for Ghanaian, Tanzanian and Nigerian journalists interested in improving their knowledge of and skills in covering the extractive sectors of oil, gas and minerals. The deadline for submission of applications is 30 June.

Spotlight on Data

Yesterday NRGI published a dataset (and accompanying visualizations) created from over 200 EITI reports released between 2003 and February 2015. The spreadsheet includes summaries of the reports, country-level revenue and project-specific data, and macroeconomic and social expenditure data from non-EITI sources (for comparison).
 


Blog

Seize the Dataset: Newly Collected EITI Numbers, and Some Ideas About Better Reporting
A decade's worth of EITI reports now cover $1.6 trillion in extractives-related revenues. While these figures are striking, they also raise the question: What do we do with this data deluge? NRGI's Erica Westenberg and Marie Lintzer suggest some answers.

Resource Resilience: How to Break the Commodities Cycle
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment's Lisa Sachs and Nicolas Maennling discuss public policies, from managing resource revenues to diversifying the economy, that can help countries reduce dependency on extractive industries and prosper through volatile commodity cycles.

Lower Oil Prices: An Opportunity for Oil and Gas Companies
Guest author Dr. Carole Nakhle analyzes the shifting bargaining power of companies and governments under current price developments and explores ways in which many companies are taking advantage of the situation to improve their fiscal terms.

Governance and the Lucrative Extractive Industries
In an interview with the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption, NRGI president Daniel Kaufmann asks important questions about resource governance trends.

Low Oil Prices Impose Difficult Choices in Uganda
Uganda can come out of the current period of low oil prices with a growing economy and healthy finances if its policies and systematic processes ensure transparency and accountability, NRGI experts write in an analysis published in Uganda's New Vision newspaper.

Galvanizing Open Data Leadership for EITI Implementation
Guest author Jed Miller introduces the first six participants in NRGI's new Extractives Open Data Leaders program, an initiative designed to improve data availability in EITI countries, increase data standardization, improve open data licensing, and enhance data reuse.

NRGI in the News and Around the Web

Al Jazeera: Billion-Dollar Gas Deals Hang on Lebanon Power Balance

Ghanaian Chronicle: Ghana Doles Out Oil Blocs for Free

Modern Ghana: Ghana’s Oil And Gas Laws Breeding Corruption

Natural Gas Daily: Payment, Not Pricing, Key for Nigerian Independents

Times of Zambia: Canadian Mines to Disclose Payments

Vanguard (Nigeria): Stakeholders Lament Non-Passage of PIB

Daily Independent (Nigeria): Buhari Can Reform Petroleum Sector Without PIB, Says Garuba

Daily Trust (Nigeria): How NNPC May Lose U.S.$2 Billion in Controversial Agreement

African Business Review: African Oil-Based Economies Need to Diversify

Myanmar Times: Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise Comes Second-Last in Transparency

The Northern Miner: Editorial: Transparency Act Kicks In

The Star: Malaysia to Host World's Largest Anti-Graft Conference

Multimedia

Oil, EITI and Africa: An NRGI Economist Weighs In

In a June 5 broadcast, NRGI's Thomas Lassourd discusses Guinea's resource governance challenges on Madagascar's KOLO TV. His comments (in French) begin at 1:08:40.

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The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) helps people to realize the benefits of their countries’ endowments of oil, gas and minerals. We do this through technical advice, advocacy, applied research, policy analysis, and capacity development. We work with innovative agents of change within government ministries, civil society, the media, legislatures, the private sector, and international institutions to promote accountable and effective governance in the extractive industries. For more information, please see: www.resourcegovernance.org.