The Open Government Partnership and Resource Governance:

Commitments for greater transparency in extractive industries

Revenue Watch Institute I December, 2011

• We promote transparent and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources

• Working in over 30 countries worldwide, with regional offices in Latin America, Africa, Eurasia, Southeast Asia, and MENA

• Focused on whole “value chain” of development:

Revenue Watch Institute

8 FOUNDING GOVERNMENTS (7 resource-rich)

9 INTL. CIVIL SOCIETY ADVISORS (incl. RWI)

40+ NEW COUNTRIES PARTICIPATING

OGP: An International Initiative

• Fiscal transparency> are budgets published?

• Access to information:> are FOI laws in place?> is essential public data published?

• Disclosures related to elected/senior officials> are incomes and assets of officials public?

• Citizen Engagement> are civil liberties protected?

Joining OGP - Eligibility Criteria

Open Government Principles

• Availability of public information

• Civic participation

• Professional integrity in government

• Access to technologies for openness and accountability

The Role for Civil Society in OGP

“Open government is the most apt response to the democratic human impulse to be involved, to count, to matter… creating open societies, where citizens can freely access and share data and ideas, and choose their leaders and hold them accountable, creates a sense of belonging and gives people a stake in public affairs.”

- Rakesh Rajani, OGP civil society Steering Committee member

• OGP requires participating countries to consult civil society as National Action Plans (NAPs) are developed

• Civil society can and should monitor government commitments and progress toward NAP goals, both independently and via the Independent Review Mechanism

OGP and Improved Extractive Industry Governance• > 50 countries depend on oil, gas and hard minerals as the most important source of government revenues• In most countries, subsoil resources = public assets• Public resources should carry a public benefit

Clear transparency and accountability requirements can:• reduce space for resource-sector corruption• improve policy efficiency• raise public trust and lower the risk of social conflict• help ensure public resources deliver a public benefit

Benefits of improved EI-sector governance

To be effective, new OGP EI commitments should:• be additive - i.e. go ‘over and above’ existing domestic practices and standards• innovate, and seek to lead by example

United States: Implementing EITI

Indonesia: Developing EITI, publishing digital forestry and concession map

Mexico: Publishing “geological and geophysical” information related to fossil fuels

First OGP commitments for improved EI governance:

Resource-rich OGP Countries

Key new OGP countries with natural resource assets: Australia Azerbaijan Canada

Chile Ghana Liberia Mongolia

Peru S. Africa Tanzania

OGP Extractive Industry Commitments

Initial

• Open up concession process and publish information on resource revenues

More Substantial

• Offer detailed, public information on resource management• Extend transparency and accountability rules to state

institutions (including NOCs)

Most Ambitious

• Allow public monitoring of development projects at all levels• Capital providers and home country regulators can require

high standards of openness (e.g. mandatory payment reporting)

What steps can OGP countries take?

INITIAL Steps/Commitments

Initial

Open up concession process and publish information on resource revenues

• Make all rules and regs. on licenses and concessions available in a public database, with clear explanations

• Make contracts/concession terms between the state and natural resource companies public

Best practice: Colombia, Liberia, Peru, Timor-Leste and US all publish mineral contracts/licenses in full

• Issue regular and detailed reports of resource revenues in the public domain – e.g. through national law or EITI participation

SUBSTANTIAL Steps/CommitmentsOffer detailed, public information on resource management

• Publish all environ. and econ. impact studies• Report on contribution of resource sectors to budget• Publish transfers to subnational governments

Best practice: Ghana and Indonesia include resource- related subnational transfers in EITI

Extend transparency and accountability rules to state institutions

• Publish data on sovereign wealth/stablisation funds, and audited accounts of all state-owned companies

Best practice: Statoil (Nor.) and Petrobras (Br.) do both• List all state-owned companies on a stock exchange• Ensure regular and free participation of parliament, civil

society and media in oversight of resource sectors

AMBITIOUS Steps/Commitments

Capital providers and home country regulators can require high standards of openness

Allow public monitoring of development projects at all levels

• Create a national web registry of all resource concessions

• Create policy and performance benchmarks and monitoring

• Require all listed companies to disclose payments to governments country-by-country and per project

Best Practice: US Dodd-Frank Act requires mandatory country and project-level reporting

• Apply IFC transparency requirements to export credit, political risk guarantees and other support to EI projects

• Report in detail on all foreign aid funding for EI projects

Work with:

(i) Countries that have already announced OGP action plans (a group that at this stage includes only Steering Committee governments)

(ii) Countries developing action plans (i.e. those new participating governments in the ‘class’ announcing commitments at 2012’s Brazil meeting)

(iii) Countries that are eligible for OGP but have not yet signed up to its Declaration of Principles.

How Can Civil Society Engage with OGP?

Goal: Monitor commitmentsHow to achieve: via independent oversight from CSOs, use of Independent Review Mechanism

Are national action plans concrete? Do they contain timetables/benchmarks? Is civil society consulted during implementation? How does government progress match up to

commitments?

(i) Countries w/OGP Action Plans

Goal: Turn advocacy asks into official commitmentsHow to achieve: via participation in MSG outreach; OGP requires “broad public consultation”

Identify gaps in governance, develop materials to evidence case to government, mediaEngage with government via OGP to suggest concrete commitmentsEncourage broad national support for asks

(ii) New OGP Countries

Goal: Lobby priority countries to join OGPHow to achieve: Send letters to Heads of State, build public demand

Publicize how OGP commitments can advance governance

Discuss OGP with high-level officials in appropriate ministries

(iii) Encourage Sign-up to OGP

Turning Gaps into Advances• OGP encourages leaders to innovate, and meet the challenges of transparent, participatory and accountable governance.

• But time to act is now: new OGP countries will unveil National Action Plans in April 2012

• Revenue Watch can help with: (i) technical advice to governments and civil society as NAPs are developed, (ii) training and other in-kind support (iii) facilitating relationships across countries where civil society is working to improve EI governance via OGP

www.opengovpartnership.org

www.revenuewatch.org

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