February 2019 News and Analysis from NRGI

News from NRGI
28 February 2019

Highlights

NRGI's Daniel Kaufmann Discusses Governance, State Capture and Corruption in Istanbul, London and on Live Webcast

NRGI president and CEO Daniel Kaufmann will discuss the most pressing trends in governance and corruption, focusing on recent evidence and discussing the phenomenon of state capture, tomorrow, 1 March, at Kadir Has University in Istanbul (to be webcast here at 10:30 a.m. GMT) and Tuesday, 5 March, in London. Register to attend the University College London Global Governance Institute lecture here.

NRGI Named Among Top Transparency and Governance Think Tanks for Fourth Consecutive Year
For 2018, NRGI was ranked third among 68 institutions worldwide.

An Opportunity to Walk the Talk: Making Gender Disclosure Part of the EITI Standard

Women are more likely to be negatively impacted by extraction than men, but appropriate policy responses are elusive. NRGI's Rebecca Iwerks wrote about how the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative could become more gender-responsive ahead of its just-concluded board meeting in Kyiv.

New IMF Fiscal Transparency Code Spotlights Major Extractive Sector Corruption Risks
The IMF heard and responded to stakeholders, returning to the frontlines of some of the most pressing natural resource transparency issues.

Events

Eurasia Extractive Industries Knowledge Hub: Natural Resources for Sustainable Development
Short-sighted approaches offering quick-fix solutions to complex economic challenges in post-Soviet Eurasia make efficient and accountable resource governance elusive. This multi-mode course offers well-grounded theories and practices for efficient resource governance. The deadline to apply is 20 March.

Transparency in the World’s Oil, Gas and Mining Industries: the U.K.’s Contribution
This 13 March session in London will feature NRGI's Joseph Williams and cover the current state of natural resource transparency, including government, civil society and private sector perspectives. The event is part of Open Government Week.

Yangon Photo Festival 2019: The Price of Jade
In this exhibition, part of the Yangon Photo Festival, photographer Minzayar Oo documents the social challenges associated with Myanmar’s remote jade mines. The festival closes on 4 March.

Spotlight on Mongolia

Fiscal Sustainability in Mongolia 2018

Expenditure volatility in Mongolia versus other countries

This report (also available in Mongolian) is an analysis of Mongolia’s public finance outlook and risks to the country’s economic sustainability using an advanced macro-fiscal model.

Mongolia's Missing Oil, Gas and Mining Contracts
This briefing explains why the Mongolian government should publish natural resource contracts, describes the different contracts that exist in Mongolia’s extractive sector that should be disclosed and suggests a path for making natural resource contract transparency a reality. Drawing from the briefing, a blog post (also available in Mongolian) outlines five steps to making contract transparency a reality in the country.

Blog

Elections in Resource-rich Countries: How to Better Campaign Around Resource Governance in 2019
In countries rich in oil, gas or minerals, electoral campaigns are fresh opportunities for political parties and candidates to dive into different aspects of the debate around resource governance; develop long-term policy positions; share them with voters; and raise public awareness on resource-related issues crucial to meaningful and sustainable development.

It’s Time for EITI to Require Contract Transparency. Here are Four Reasons Why.
NRGI's Rob Pitman and Oxfam America's Isabel Munilla wrote that the EITI board has an important opportunity to strengthen the EITI Standard’s provisions on contract transparency.

New Legislation Will Bolster Ghana’s Revenue Management. Here are Four More Ways to Improve Public Oversight
Ghana's Fiscal Responsibility Act is a step forward, but there are ways to strengthen it further in its implementation.

Guinea's Mining Minister: How Guinea Met the Contract Transparency Challenge

To find out more about the country’s experience in publishing contracts, NRGI's Hervé Lado spoke with Abdoulaye Magassouba, Guinea’s minister of mines and geology (also available in French).

Offshore Gas Discoveries Mean Change for Egypt’s Economy and Citizens
Bloomberg reporter Mirette Magdy attended the fifth annual Middle East and North Africa Regional Extractive Industries Knowledge Hub course co-organized by NRGI and the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. In an interview, she spoke about Egypt’s changing role in the region’s energy mix.

Des solutions importantes pour consacrer la transparence et la bonne gouvernance dans le cadre juridique minier tunisien

Les gestionnaires de communes minières en première ligne de la mise en œuvre du fonds de développement en Guinée