11 April 2007

IHT publishes GPPi op-ed on fighting Africa’s oil "curse"

On 11 April 2007, the International Herald Tribune published an op-ed by GPPi’s Thorsten Benner and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira on fighting Africa’s oil "curse". The piece, entitled "Getting Tough with the Petro-elites", deals with the issue of good governance in Africa's oil producing states.

West Africa is the world's fastest growing oil-producing region and the G8 has finally started to tackle the problem of transparency and good governance. However, the authors argue that the present approach of relying only on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is insufficient. Benner and Soares de Oliveira propose an alternative approach based on four key pillars:

• Move good governance to the center of the discussion on energy security (along with security of supply, price stability and environmental sustainability)
• Impose travel bans on the corrupt elite
• Promote transparency of financial flows throughout the global financial system
• Mobilize consumer power

Benner and Soares de Oliveira argue that "if we want to help African populations secure the development dividend from oil, we should not shy away from using our market power and living up to our responsibilities as consumers." 

The article is part of GPPi’s work on the extractive sector and good governance. It builds on GPPi’s track record of analyzing the effectiveness of voluntary partnerships such as the EITI and also on the field work conducted by Ricardo Soares de Oliveira for his book Oil and Politics in the Gulf of Guinea (London, C. Hurst Publishers).

To read the full article, please click here.

For further questions, please contact Thorsten Benner or Ricardo Soares de Oliveira.

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