This Human Rights Watch report examines the misuse of public funds by local officials in the Rivers State of Nigeria’s. It is based on interviews in Rivers state with government and donor agency officials, civil servants, health care workers, teachers, civil society groups and local residents. Also state and local government budgets are analysed.Despite Nigeria’s strong oil industry ordinary Nigerians have derived appallingly little benefit from that wealth and the misuse of public funds by local officials had harmful effects on primary education and basic health care.

Improving land governance is key in assuring that land resources can be enjoyed by all parts of the population. Donors can play an important role in combatting corruption in land administration and building a well-functioning land administration by both supporting domestic government efforts as well as engaging in international and multi-country initiatives. However, donors are advised by experts and civil society organisations to be mindful of the possible impact of their interventions on issues of land grabbing and forced relocations.

Corruption is a serious problem in many developing countries that are rich in oil and other natural resources. This is central in explaining why resource rich countries perform badly in terms of socioeconomic development. Transparency has recently been viewed as a key factor in reducing corruption and other dysfunctions in natural resource rich countries. The paper addresses the relationship between transparency and corruption, with an emphasis on oil rich countries.

To be fully prepared for Lebanon’s possible transformation into a major oil and gas producer, the risks of corruption in connection to its nascent petroleum sector need to be better understood and addressed. Given Lebanon’s dismal track record in countering corruption and its chronically gridlocked political process, the risks of corruption in the country’s nascent petroleum sector are significant.

This paper notes that under a sustainable, well-managed, logging regime, Papua – the most densely forested part of Indonesia – can potentially contribute substantial forest revenues for socio-economic development. Yet, it remains the poorest region in the country, in part due to widespread corruption involving public and private actors.The paper argues that, reforming the management of these resources – specifically, introducing accountability and transparency into the collection of forest revenues – is a key precondition for welfare improvements in the region.

Botswana's meat export parastatal, the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), has been much in the local news. Cattle suppliers have become accustomed to substantial annual producer price increases from this successful national industry, which has expanded increasingly into European markets. But at the end of 1984 it was announced that there would be no bonus paid and no price increase for 1985. This was later changed to a small 5% price increase, following producer pressure.

In 1995, corrupt officials secretly awarded all of Cambodia’s unallocated forest, 35 per cent of the country’s total land area, as concessions to logging companies. How have these rogue loggers exploited political instability and weak government institutions to plunder Cambodia’s timber? Can anything be done to check the depredations of the ‘untouchables’ before Cambodia is logged out?

Studies of the consequences of corruption have mainly focused on economic efficiency. This paper illustrates that corruption can also have distributional consequences. Corruption increases income inequality and poverty through lower economic growth; biased tax systems favoring the rich and well-connected; poor targeting of social programs; use of wealth by the well-to-do to lobby government for favorable policies that perpetuate inequality in asset ownership; lower social spending; unequal access to education; and a higher risk in investment decisions of the poor.

This article discusses issues surrounding land reform in Kenya. As the nature of land reforms is as yet undecided, disparate suggestions and proposals are being considered. These include:Land Ownership Ceilings. There are vast inequalities in land ownership. Indeed, non-indigenous Kenyans or corporations that are not significantly Kenyan own the largest consolidated quantities of Kenyan lands. Ceilings on land ownership, would encourage more equitable distribution of land, perhaps facilitating more effective production and a reduction in food security problems.

From forced eviction to loss of livelihood, social status, savings and even life, land corruption in Africa has serious and far-reaching consequences. Such corruption comes in many forms, and it must be understood – along with the factors that enable it – before it can be tackled.

For people around the world, land is more than a commodity to be bought and sold, de