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Delegates at the Pacific Women and Mining Conference call for revenue from the use of their resources to be used to benefit the people and must be transparently reported. Photo: Shanta Martin / OxfamAUS.

Revenue transparency

Natural resource revenues are an important source of income for governments of resource-rich, poor countries. These revenues, when properly managed, can serve as a basis for poverty reduction, economic growth and development.   However, these revenues do not always benefit communities.  Instead of paying for health and education services, natural resource revenues often exacerbate corruption, conflict and social divisiveness and never reach communities.  

The Publish What You Pay campaign is one initiative that aims for greater revenue transparency in the resource sector.  Publish What You Pay aims to help citizens of resource-rich developing countries hold their governments accountable for the management of revenues from the oil, gas and mining industries.

The Publish What You Pay coalition of more than 300 non-government organisations – including Oxfam – calls for the mandatory disclosure of the payments made by oil, gas and mining companies to all governments for the extraction of natural resources. The coalition also calls on resource-rich developing country governments to publish full details on revenues. This is a necessary first step towards a more accountable system for the management of natural resource revenues. With access to information on oil, gas and mining revenue, citizens can engage in debate on the use and distribution of these revenues.