Campaign Pack for IASB country-by-country financial reporting

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is considering a new global standard for extractive-company reporting.  This International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) could require oil, gas, and mining companies to publish what they pay to governments, what they extract, the costs of production, the production revenues and the reserves for each country in which they operate.  However, the IASB's current proposals have critical gaps and weaknesses, and industry opposition threatens to turn this crucial moment into a missed opportunity.

Budget Transparency and Development in Resource-Dependent Countries

In this paper, de Renzio, Gomez and Sheppard analyze the topic of the resource curse: the idea that countries endowed with natural resources commonly have issues in governance and development.

The authors’ primary focus in the resource curse debate is that the direct cause of it may be due to higher price structures in resource-abundant countries. More specifically, argue the authors, this model tends to breed high consumption rates, low rates of investment, and over-valued exchange rates, to the extent that socioeconomic development falls by the wayside.

Resource Dependence and Budget Transparency

This paper from the Revenue Watch Institute argues that countries largely dependent on external sources for their natural resource supply tend to be less open, and less likely to publish their resource revenue and budget data. In fact, as authors Heuty and Carlitz note, according to the Open Budget Index of 2008 countries that are in this category tend to have an average transparency score of 31 out of 100—with 100 representing the highest positive score possible.

Natural Resources and Development Strategy after the Crisis

This paper, from the World Bank's Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) note series, discusses the impact of high commodity prices on development strategies, and in particular, attempts to answer the following four questions: (i) How dependent are developing countries on primary commodity exports? (ii) What is the outlook for primary commodity prices?, (iii) Is there a natural resource “curse” (or blessing)?, and (iv) What policies can help poor countries best manage commodity resources for long-run development?

Finding Common Ground: Indigenous Peoples and Their Association with the Mining Sector

This report is part of the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development Project (MMSD), a project based at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a non-governmental sustainable development organization. This report contains an overview of MMSD’s analysis and engagement on the relationship between indigenous peoples and the mining and minerals sector, together with edited versions of three research reports commissioned to address different aspects of that relationship.

Extracting Transparency: The Need for an International Financial Reporting Standard for the Extractive Industries

In this report Global Witness argues the case for an International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) for the upstream Extractive Industries. An IFRS is about mainstream financial reporting. The focus of mainstream financial reporting is on decision-making. As such, to suggest that something should be covered by an IFRS is to suggest it has use in the decision making process some or all users want to undertake based on the financial statements of a company.

Diamonds in the Rough: Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe

In this report, Human Rights Watch calls on the power-sharing government of Zimbabwe to remove the military from Marange Diamond mining region, restore security responsibilities to the police, and ensure that the police around the mining area abide by internationally recognized standards of law enforcement and the use of lethal force.

Natural Resource Charter

Countries with non-renewable natural resource wealth face special opportunities and special challenges. If used well, these resources can create greater prosperity for current and future generations; if used poorly, they can cause economic instability, social conflict and lasting environmental damage.

The purpose of the Resource Charter is to assist the governments and societies of countries rich in non-renewable resources to manage those resources in a way that generates economic growth, promotes the welfare of the population in general and is environmentally sustainable.