The extractive industries transparency initiative: Impact, effectiveness, and where next for expanding natural resource governance?

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a proliferation of initiatives to improve the governance of the extractives sector. Starting with the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme in 2003 and continuing with the Global Witness/Publish What You Pay Coalition and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), several bilateral and multilateral donors have dedicated significant funding to improving transparency and accountability in the management of oil, minerals and gas. A driving motivation behind such efforts was to increase public awareness regarding the management of non-renewable natural resources, to reduce opportunities for corruption between the public and private sector, and to prompt greater external oversight of the industry.