January 2021 News and Analysis from NRGI

News from NRGI
2 February 2021

Highlights

NRGI's 2021 Agenda: Toward a Sustainable Future for Resource-Rich Countries

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NRGI interim president and CEO Suneeta Kaimal details how the organization will use its expertise to help resource-rich countries navigate the challenges of the global pandemic and the accelerating climate crisis in 2021.

Risky Bet: National Oil Companies in the Energy Transition
On 16 February, hear from NRGI experts as they share findings about the role of national oil companies in the energy transition, and then engage in Q&A with guest commentators. Register to attend.

Country Assessments: The Coronavirus Pandemic and Economic Crisis
NRGI continues to analyze the impacts of the pandemic, and has recently released updated assessments for countries including Colombia (also in Spanish), DRC (also in French), Ghana, Lebanon (also in Arabic), Mexico, Peru (also in Spanish) and Tunisia (also in Arabic).

NRGI Strategy Microsite

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Explore NRGI's 2020-2025 organizational strategy with this new, concise microsite. (Or read the strategy in full.)

Publications

Ghana’s Oil Sales: Using Commodity Trading Data for Accountability

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The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation has sold more than $5 billion worth of oil. Ghana's civil society organizations, government officials, journalists and others can use publicly available data on these oil sales to address the country's resource governance challenges and maximize oil sales revenues. (Read the press release, or watch a webinar featuring a panel discussion and Q&A on the research.)

DRC’s Mining Revenues: Increasing Accountability by Analyzing Payments to Governments Reports Ten international mining companies have paid at least $2 billion to government entities in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2015. This report explores how citizens, journalists and officials can use the data to monitor policy and governance issues. (Also available in French.)

Oil-Rich Countries' Responses to Energy Transition: Managing the Decline This chapter co-authored by NRGI experts appears in the newly published book The Global Energy Transition: Law, Policy and Economics for Energy in the 21st Century.

Blog

Contract Transparency is an Extractive Industries Success Story—But It’s Not Over Yet
Since 1 January, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has required implementing countries to publish new and amended contracts with extractive companies. Yet work remains to end secret deals in oil, gas and mining.

New Oil- and Gas-Producing Countries Now Have an Online Home

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The New Producers Group, a network coordinated by NRGI, Chatham House, the Commonwealth Secretariat and 30 member countries, has launched a new website. The site brings together research, videos and other tools to support new or prospective oil and gas producers to develop strong policies, oversight and accountability.

Peru's Political Crisis Produces New Attempts to Lower Mining Standards
Amid political turmoil in Peru, some lawmakers proposed reversals of resource governance standards and provisions. But maintenance of investments should not come at the cost of weakened extractive sector governance. (Also available in Spanish.)

Using Transparency to Mitigate Corruption
NRGI in partnership with EITI and Transparency International Accountable Mining presented new tools and guidance to combat extractive sector corruption. (Also available in French.)

Time to Pivot: The Role of the Energy Transition and Investors in Forging Resilient Resource-Rich Country Outcomes
The natural resource governance field must undertake drastic changes in strategies and tactics to ensure a sustainable energy future.

Women in Mining: A History of Legal Invisibility and Exclusion
The third in a series of posts from the NRGI and World Resources Institute research project on gender and extractives explores the history of legal restrictions of women’s employment in the mining sector.

NRGI's Ten Most-Read 2020 Blog Posts
Most of NRGI's most-read blog posts of 2020 focused on the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on natural resource governance.

Events

Radically Different: The State of Gendered Extractive Governance
The Gender Justice and Extractive Industries Working Group has this week launched a webinar series exploring women’s rights and gender justice in the extractive industries. Join NRGI's Aubrey Menard on 3 February to explore how governments can devise industry agreements that support gender-transformative change. Register to attend.

Minerales estratégicos, cadenas de suministro y desafíos de gobernanza en los Andes
NRGI is hosting four Spanish-language webinars in the second half of the series on governance of critical minerals in Andean countries. The next is "La cadena de suministro del cobre y sus impactos territoriales en Perú" on 10 February. (Register to attend.) On 24 February is "La cadena de suministro del carbón y sus implicancias para los derechos humanos en La Guajira, Colombia." (Register to attend.)

Video

Les étapes du suivi des obligations légales et contractuelles dans le secteur extractif

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This French-language video shows how oversight actors can hold mining companies and governments to account for contractual obligations.

The Global Supply Chain for Electric Vehicles’ Batteries: Governance Implications

Part of a training cycle on critical minerals in Andean countries, this recorded webinar focuses on the governance issues for minerals used in electric vehicle batteries.

Climate Action: Time for Integrity
Explore the intersections of climate change and corruption, including barriers to effective climate action, impacts of climate governance corruption and possible solutions.

The Future of Anticorruption in the Natural Resource Space: Building Strategies Across Different Levels
NRGI's Alexandra Gillies and other speakers discuss the actions and strategies needed to advance the anticorruption agenda in natural resources to tackle key challenges from state capture to bribery.