An Open Process

Learn how the voices of the world’s poorest will be needed in a new global plan to fight extreme poverty. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change the game with one fell swoop – now is the time to take action.

The Fight

Too many people in the world’s poorest countries don’t have access to information about what their governments do with their resources.  Too often, this secrecy leads to inefficiency, unfair deals, misspent funds and money lining the pockets of the politically powerful.

  • $20-$40 billion
    is illegally and corruptly appropriated from some of the world's poorest countries each year
  • Only 23%
    of countries provide enough information for citizens to analyze and understand the budget
  • Only three quarters
    of global aid flows are now subject to international transparency standards
11 of 26
11 of the 26 countries in sub-Saharan Africa ranked in the Open Budget Index provide little to no budget information.
382 billion
dollars worth of exports
In 2011, exports of oil, gas and minerals from Africa were worth $382 billion, nearly 8x the value of aid to Africa

Join us and let's make sure all citizens can track where and what their government spends.

2013 Resource Governance Index: More reasons why the G8 should support transparency in June

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2013 Resource Governance Index: More reasons why the G8 should support transparency in June

The Revenue Watch Institute today released its 2013 Resource Governance Index (RGI), which measures the transparency and accountability in oil, gas and mining sectors across 58 countries. The findings reveal that only 11 of the 58 countries assessed have satisfactory standards of transparency and accountability in oil, gas and mining. In the other 47 countries,

A back door attack on oil payment transparency

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A back door attack on oil payment transparency

A few weeks ago, a few House Republicans introduced H.R. 1613, the innocuous sounding “Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement Act”. A little over four pages long, H.R. 1613 is primarily designed to provide Congressional approval to a US-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement (TBA) signed by both governments over a year ago.

A cool new policy that makes US government data more accessible than ever

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A cool new policy that makes US government data more accessible than ever

Yesterday, the President signed an Executive Order committing all federal government data to be open and accessible by default. This isn’t the first time that President Obama has signed an executive order about the importance of transparency and open government. So, what makes yesterday different? This time, we’re talking about an open data policy with

 

The Progress

Transparency gives citizens the power to hold their leaders to account. It can help ensure development assistance is spent efficiently and effectively. It can help ensure that government spending reflects real priorities and give countries a fair deal from oil, gas and mining companies for the exploitation of their natural resources. And it can help ensure that all revenues are spent effectively, to help people to move out of poverty.

  • 100
    organizations from 56 countries have joined a Global Movement for Budget Transparency, Participation and Accountability
10 X
African countries collect 10x more in tax revenue than they receive in aid.
twenty one
African countries
Twenty-one African countries have agreed to the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative

Join us and let's make sure all citizens can track where and what their government spends.