Insight Grant Competition: Does Transparency Lead to Accountability? A Two-Country Study of Local Implementation of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in West Africa

A major challenge confronting many resource-rich developing countries is severe and systemic corruption, which prevents them from getting the most value from their oil, gas and mining sectors. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global initiative launched in 2002 by the UK government to promote better management of resource revenues, is strongly supported by the Canadian government, one of 15 donor partners. The EITI expects participating governments to disclose the royalties and taxes they receive from the extractive sector, and oil and mining companies to report what they pay to government. While increased transparency about the revenues received from extraction is expected to produce more accountable national and local governance, the EITI Secretariat acknowledged that this outcome is not always achieved and has called for greater effort to be directed to ensuring accountability at the local level. This research responds to this call by focusing on EITI implementation at the local level in Nigeria and Ghana, two important EITI-compliant countries.