The past year has seen dramatic declines in the prices of global commodities and many countries dependent on revenues from extractive industries have been hit hard. However, commodity price fluctuations are nothing new and this raises the question of what countries dependent on commodity exports can learn from past mistakes, and what measures they can take to build resilience against commodity cycles. CCSI’s Lisa Sachs and Nicolas…

Norway: Revenue from oil fund now exceeds revenue from oil

IIED hosted a Visioning Workshop to launch our Multi-stakeholder Dialogue on Artisanal and Small Scale Mining (ASM) on 29-30th April 2015.

The two-day 'visioning workshop' on ASM generated a shared sense of optimism – and a vision to wake up the "big lazy sleeping giant" that is government. James Mcquilken (j.mcquilken@surrey.ac.uk) a PhD researcher at the University of Surrey Business…

The Mining Shared Value venture of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada is excited to share the Canadian industry-focused version of our report released in February, Local Procurement and Public Reporting Trends across the Global Mining Industry: An Analysis of Company Reporting, 2012-2013. In addition to examining how the world’s 40 largest mining companies publicly report on Local Procurement, this Canadian Mining Supplementary Edition also includes public reporting trends…

OpenOil is pleased to announce what we believe is the first open API applied to oil extraction rights around the world: the 20,000 “blocks”, “fields” and “concession areas” (we'll get into naming problems a little lower down) from some 69 countries involving some 2,142 unique corporate structures as operators and contractors.

We hope this Application Programming Interface is a significant step towards a formal, open data…

RCS Global invites you to participate in the online public consultation process on the draft Guidance for Governments on Managing Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM), which RCS Global has produced for…

The price of oil, the commodity that more than any other determines the fortunes of Nigeria, has fallen over 50 percent since June 2014. The country’s 37 billion barrels of oil reserves are now significantly less valuable than before. Previous slumps in prices have spelt disaster for Nigeria and other oil-dependent countries, leading to depleted government coffers, painful fiscal cuts and reduced economic growth. What will be the impact for…

European legislators on Wednesday unexpectedly voted in favour of a law requiring firms to ensure they do not use so-called conflict minerals from Africa and other areas that end up funding warlords.

The legislation for compulsory regulation of the use of tungsten, tin, tantalum and gold, which are often used in computers and mobile phones, will however face a…

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is currently experiencing one of the fastest economic growths on Earth. Although this is great news for the area, the threat of corruption lingers on, casting a shadow over great opportunities. The main issue? The combination of the fastest-growing and richest economies with some of the poorest people living on this planet.…

This joint OGEL and TDM Special issue focuses on renewable energy disputes at the level of international, European and national law. There are many ongoing cases at all three levels. Recent and ongoing renewable energy disputes under international law have concerned…

The first, in the series of capacity building and training for journalists in oil and gas begun last Thursday here in Accra for a selected coalition of reporters- Journalist Against Corruption (JAC) with a call to them to re-focus and drive hard in advocating underhand dealings in the oil and gas sector.

The Executive Director African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Dr Mohammed Amin Adam made the call that it also takes a collective effort and will to fight…

The annual OECD Conference on Due Diligence and Responsible Sourcing was held last week in Paris, France. Here are the key takeaways from this crucial conference in the calendar year.

• New due diligence actions from China and the EU to appear in 2015
• OECD Due Diligence is becoming mainstream worldwide for companies and countries
• SEC issuers are concerned with data quality which is creating pressures and…

There are many programs and movements being created these days to enunciate the issue of contract transparency within natural resource extraction. This website is a testament to this. As a member of the International Commerce & Policy Program at George Mason University, we study an array of disciplines ranging from trade and commerce to revenue allocation for civil projects in developing territories.

Although I trust the administration's ability to adequately critique my work, I…

Malawi to join the EITI

The Herculean task of change in Ukraine

In this EITI profile of the month, Olena Pavlenko tells us about uphill battles, Yetis and how things are moving ahead.

 A coalition of selected Ghanaian Journalists - Journalists Against Corruption (JAC) will undergo professional enhancement training to sharpen their investigative skills aimed at focusing more light in the extractive industry especially the Oil and Gas. The occasion will also witness the formal inauguration of the coalition.

The two-day training organized by the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) in collaboration with OSIWA, seeks to drive advocacy on petroleum…

The undertaking of oil exploration typically has profound social, cultural and political impacts – both negative and positive, both in the country at large and in the region of operation. Oil exploration can have a positive effect on development by creating jobs, catalyzing business and providing vital infrastructure such as roads, electricity, building schools and even better health facilities like the Buliisa Health Centre IV.

However, if unchecked, the negative effects can…

The Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR), Coventry University, England, has launched the six week programme, planned for mid September to end October 2015, as follows:

The “Improving Natural Resource Governance through Citizen Engagement” fellowship programme has two key objectives. First, it aims to help improve the knowledge and skills of civil society fellows in engaging in natural…