This report reviews the experience and outcomes of the funding by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) of projects in the extractive industries. It presents short case studies of experiences in the Philippines, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Romania, Colombia, Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, which then uses to make recommendations.

Mineral extraction is the main source of employment and income in, Kolwezi, a city that has been tied since its inception to the
fortunes of Congolese copper and cobalt mining and the intertwined narrative of trends in international copper and cobalt supply, demand and price.

This report summarises the results of a monitoring and evaluation project of Independent Forest Monitoring (IFM) in Honduras.

Sudan, a nation of 36 million people wracked by conflict for 34 of the last 45 years, has generated some four million displaced people during the course of its war. It is estimated that over two million Sudanese people have died as a result of fighting and related starvation and disease. Most conventional analyses have focussed on the identity-based dichotomies to explain the conflict.

This document discusses the challenges and dilemmas in multi-stakeholder partnering work, particularly the development and use of metrics to measure progress. It is aimed particularly at partner organisations, and individuals hired to aid in the facilitation, monitoring or management of partnerships as independent, ‘external’, third-parties.

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.

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.

China’s impressive inroads into Africa’s resources sectors over the past decade are explained largely by the timely match between a cash-loaded China in search of raw materials and a continent with a vast pool of underdeveloped mineral deposits, exploration of which has been hindered for decades by underinvestment and infrastructure bottlenecks. Chinese ‘infrastructure-for-resources’ loans are ultimately a product of the convergence of Chinese and African interests at the dawn of the 21st century.

This report analyses how Tanzania is failing to use its considerable mineral resources to tackle poverty, and asks: where is Tanzania’s mineral wealth going?  Gold mining is the fastest growing sector of Tanzania’s economy. Minerals now account for nearly half the country’s exports and Tanzania is Africa’s third largest gold producer.

This report highlights issues discussed in the 2002 RIIA workshop. It demonstrates the challenges faced in the creation and implementation of agreements with stakeholders on economic and environmental areas of sustainable development in the extractive industry. The report highlights key issues discussed relating to maximising economic benefits and minimising negative environmental impacts.

In the light of an emerging International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for the extractive industries - which could give a significant boost to global efforts to better account for revenues from the extractive industries - this report argues that such standards should require upstream extractive industry operators to disclose revenue payments on a country-by-country basis.Country-by-country reporting, this report argues, are crucial in achieving greater transparency, and will allow for better informed decisions about companies engaged in the extractive sector.

Mineral wealth often detracts from, rather than enhances, the economic performance of developing countries, a phenomenon known as the “resource curse”. The need to finance basic government expenditure, as well as rent-seeking behaviour by individuals and interest groups, puts pressure on developing country governments to spend mineral revenues rather than reinvest them.