The EITI Blog

The EITI Blog gathers together ideas about the role of transparency and natural resources in creating economic growth and fighting poverty and corruption. The blog is authored by members of the EITI Secretariat and key stakeholders.

Asymmetric information and the EITI

November 12th 2009 - 6:18PM ... Francisco Paris

George Soros has recently reminded us in a lecture published in the FT of the ubiquitous nature of the “principal-agent” problem. We can perhaps go one step backward to the core phenomenon that is behind the “agency” problem: asymmetric information.

Peter Eigen interviewed on BBC HARDtalk

November 6th 2009 - 12:31PM ... Anders Tunold Kråkenes

Dr Peter Eigen, Chairman of the EITI and founder of Transparency International, was interviewed by Jonathan Charles on the BBC news programme HARDtalk. He spoke about what has happened in the combat against corruption of the past years, and about how the EITI can reduce corruption in the extractive sector by improving disclosing of payments and bringing government, companies and civil society to the table.A clip from the interview can be seen here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8341232.stm

- Bad governance leads to lower revenues from extractives sector

October 7th 2009 - 2:33PM ... Dyveke Rogan

On 5 October we at the EITI International Secretariat together with the Norwegian government’s Oil for Development (OfD), hosted a briefing for Norway based EITI partners and other interested parties. The briefing titled "Improving extractive industries governance" started off with updates from the EITI and OfD, outlining their progress. Farouk al-Kasim, the Iraqi-Norwegian geologist who played a crucial role in the early days of Norway’s oil, was a featured speaker.

EITI expectations - necessary but not sufficient

October 2nd 2009 - 4:24PM ... Jonas Moberg

With 22 of the 30 countries around the world having to go through the EITI quality assurance mechanism, Validation, by March 2010, it is tremendously encouraging to hear about implementation in full swing in so many countries. We at the International Secretariat often get questions about why the EITI doesn’t cover things like contract transparency or require company-by-company reporting or improved transparency about how governments spend their money.