BIC's new handbook for advocacy on extractive industry revenues

1 July 2008

Bank Information Center has recently released it's new "Handbook for Advocacy on Extractive Industry Revenues: Good Practices and the IMF’s Guide on Resource Revenue Transparency."

Bank Information Center has recently released it's new "Handbook for Advocacy on Extractive Industry Revenues: Good Practices and the IMF’s Guide on Resource Revenue Transparency."

This Handbook is a user’s guide to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) “Guide on Resource Revenue Transparency.”[1] Published in June 2005 and updated in May 2007, the IMF’s guide provides key information and recommended methods for public management of revenues earned from the extractive industries – the extraction and sale of oil, gas and minerals. These recommended methods are called “good practices.” The IMF guide, at 73 pages, contains a considerable amount of information, but is fairly dense and technical. This publication aims to make the Guide’s content more accessible to the public and to highlight important issues for civil society groups.

The Handbook is intended as a tool for civil society organizations, journalists and other members of the public interested in learning more about transparency and fiscal management in the natural resource sectors. It distills and builds upon information contained in the IMF’s document, with a focus on areas especially pertinent for civil society groups seeking to better understand how extractive industry (EI) sectors are managed. The Handbook aims to help civil society groups hold governments and private companies accountable for the exploitation of natural resources in their country.[2]

In producing this Handbook, BIC is not endorsing the extractive industries or asserting that improved transparency, alone, would address the myriad social, environmental and economic impacts associated with natural resource exploitation. Rather, this document aims to provide citizens in resource-rich countries with one more tool to strengthen their efforts to hold industry actors and governments accountable.

[1] International Monetary Fund, “Guide on Resource Revenue Transparency,” first published June 2005; updated May 2007. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes and references to the IMF Guide in this handbook refer to the May 2007 version.

[2] Disclaimer: This document is a product of the Bank Information Center. It is not approved or endorsed by the International Monetary Fund. Except where quoting from the IMF or other sources directly, the views expressed in this Handbook represent those of the Bank Information Center, alone. The words “natural resource sectors” and “extractive industries” will be used interchangeably throughout this document.

Download the full document

Handbook for Advocacy on Extractive Industry Revenues: Good Practices and the IMF’s Guide on Resource Revenue Transparency, Bank Information Center, June 2008 (Acrobat pdf, 404 KB)