Good governance includes the capability of citizens to hold the government accountable for its actions and inaction. Revenues generated from natural resource extraction, collection of customs duties and other taxes, and public procurement awards are all areas particularly susceptible to exploitation by government officials seeking personal enrichment or seeking to line political party coffers, transforming the blessing of natural resources into a curse. This working group aims to look at governmental use of natural resource revenues, and to make policy recommendations that will improve governmental practice and increase the public awareness of these issues. Transparency, access to information, and civic involvement applying domestic and international public pressure represent part of the available international tool-kit for promoting government accountability. The hope is that existing and future natural resource revenues will be invested and expended in programs for the benefit of the public such as poverty reduction, education and public health.

Fellow projects in 2006: