Natural Resource Governance Institute

The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) is an independent nonprofit organisation dedicated to improving countries' governance over their natural resources (in particular oil, gas and minerals) to promote sustainable and inclusive development.[1] The headquarters of NRGI are based in New York.

Natural Resource Governance Institute

Abbreviation	NRGI
Formation	2013
Headquarters	80 Broad Street, Suite 1801, New York, NY 10004
Interim President and CEO	Suneeta Kaimal
Staff	70+
Website	https://resourcegovernance.org/

History

The Natural Resource Governance Institute was established through the merger of the Revenue Watch Institute and the Natural Resource Charter in 2013.[2] Originally based in New York, NRGI has opened offices in London, Accra, Lima, Washington, D.C., Jakarta and Dar Es Salaam.[3] This partly reflects its focus on Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Tanzania and Tunisia as "priority countries".[4]

Organisation and Activities

The Natural Resource Governance Institute is led by a president and CEO, with Suneeta Kaimal currently serving in that role as an interim appointee.[5] Its activities are supervised by a board of directors, with Smita Singh as interim chair.[6] Finally, NRGI's leadership team and its board of directors are supported by an Advisory Council co-chaired by Michael Spence and Joseph Bell.[7] Other prominent figures affiliated with NRGI include Paul Collier, Ernest Aryeetey, Elena Panfilova, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Peter Eigen, Daniel Kaufmann, Antonio La Viña, Ilgar Mammadov, José Antonio Ocampo, Anya Schiffrin, Andrés Velasco, Tony Venables and Ernesto Zedillo.

In line with its mission, NRGI supports civil society organisations, government institutions, private sector enterprises, and the media with technical advice, advocacy, applied research, policy analysis, and capacity development with regard to natural resource governance.[8] Key tools developed in that context include for example the Resource Governance Index, a repository of resource contracts, and the Natural Resource Charter Benchmarking Framework.[9] Notably, research and resources from NRGI have been featured by international media such as The Atlantic,[10] Financial Times[11] and Forbes,[12] as well as national media in the concerned countries.

The Natural Resource Charter

The Natural Resource Charter is a document aimed at providing advice and policy options with regard to the management of resource wealth in order to help resource-rich countries use their natural resources for sustainable development. NRGI promotes the implementation of the Natural Resource Charter and provides policy advice with regard to this implementation process. The Natural Resource Charter consists of the following 12 Precepts, which are organised into three parts based on the chain of decisions involved in natural resource management:[13]

• Domestic foundations for resource governance

(1) Resource management should secure the greatest benefit for citizens through an inclusive and comprehensive national strategy, clear legal framework and competent institutions.

(2) Resource governance requires decision makers to be accountable to an informed public.

• Economic decisions required to manage resources for prosperity

(3) The government should encourage efficient exploration and production operations, and allocate rights transparently.

(4) Tax regimes and contractual terms should enable the government to realize the full value of its resources consistent with attracting necessary investment, and should be robust to changing circumstances.

(5) The government should pursue opportunities for local benefits, and account for, mitigate and offset the environmental and social costs of resource extraction projects.

(6) Nationally owned companies should be accountable, with well-defined mandates and an objective of commercial efficiency.

(7) The government should invest revenues to achieve optimal and equitable outcomes, for current and future generations.

(8) The government should smooth domestic spending of revenues to account for revenue volatility.

(9) The government should use revenue as an opportunity to increase the efficiency of public spending at the national and sub-national levels.

(10) The government should facilitate private sector investments to diversify the economy and to engage in the extractive industry.

• International foundations for resource governance

(11) Companies should commit to the highest environmental, social and human rights standards, and to sustainable development.

(12) Governments and international organizations should promote an upward harmonization of standards to support sustainable development.

Resource Governance Index

The Resource Governance Index, developed by NRGI, measures the quality of countries' resource governance and ranks them accordingly. The index is constructed by sending a 149-item questionnaire to 150 experts in 81 countries, who research the issues raised in the questionnaire, compile documentation and complete the questionnaire. The quality of the survey data is then assessed by NRGI and enriched by further data on countries "enabling environments".[14] Finally, NRGI calculates the index as a composite score out of the:

• Value realization score;
• Revenue management score;
• Enabling environment score;

with higher scores indicating a better resource governance process.

Country/territory	Assessed sector	RGI 2017 score	RGI 2017 rank	Value realization score	Revenue management score	Enabling environment score
	Afghanistan	Mining	34	71	58	31	14
Algeria	Oil & gas	33	73	40	25	35
Angola	Oil & gas	35	70	50	31	25
Argentina	Oil & gas	57	22	58	54	58
Australia	Mining	71	8	65	51	96
Azerbaijan	Oil & gas	47	47	49	43	49
Bahrain	Oil & gas	39	59	27	26	63
Bangladesh	Oil & gas	36	67	39	35	34
Bolivia	Oil & gas	54	34	61	51	49
Botswana	Mining	61	18	40	62	81
Brazil	Oil & gas	71	6	62	78	72
Burkina Faso	Mining	59	20	66	54	57
Cambodia	Mining	30	79	31	18	40
Cameroon	Oil & gas	54	30	59	70	33
Canada	Oil & gas	75	4	69	59	97
Chad	Oil & gas	34	72	39	43	19
Chile	Mining	81	2	74	81	90
China	Oil & gas	55	29	52	54	59
Colombia	Oil & gas	71	7	59	85	67
Colombia	Mining	69	10	59	82	67
DR Congo	Mining	33	75	52	35	12
DR Congo	Oil & gas	25	84	44	20	12
Congo	Oil & gas	39	58	45	44	29
Ivory Coast	Oil & gas	55	28	60	60	46
Cuba	Oil & gas	36	66	29	23	57
Ecuador	Oil & gas	54	32	51	58	52
Egypt	Oil & gas	39	60	45	30	41
Equatorial Guinea	Oil & gas	22	85	29	18	17
Eritrea	Mining	10	89	15	5	10
Ethiopia	Mining	40	57	46	38	37
Gabon	Oil & gas	36	65	18	47	44
Ghana	Mining	56	24	61	37	70
Ghana	Oil & gas	67	13	65	65	70
Guatemala	Mining	41	56	42	35	46
Guinea	Mining	38	63	53	24	37
India	Oil & gas	70	9	75	66	69
Indonesia	Mining	68	11	64	76	65
Indonesia	Oil & gas	68	12	64	76	65
Iran	Oil & gas	38	62	36	45	34
Iraq	Oil & gas	37	61	52	47	16
Kazakhstan	Oil & gas	56	25	53	54	61
Kuwait	Oil & gas	54	33	44	51	67
Kyrgyzstan	Mining	51	38	57	51	44
Laos	Mining	38	64	42	30	41
Liberia	Mining	44	52	59	30	41
Libya	Oil & gas	18	87	27	20	6
Madagascar	Mining	36	68	36	34	38
Malaysia	Oil & gas	56	27	49	41	77
Mali	Mining	53	35	48	70	42
Mauritania	Mining	29	82	41	10	36
Mexico	Oil & gas	61	17	64	54	65
Mexico	Mining	60	19	62	53	65
Mongolia	Mining	64	15	63	54	73
Morocco	Mining	52	37	56	35	64
Mozambique	Oil & gas	50	41	66	42	43
Myanmar	Oil & gas	31	77	44	30	19
Myanmar	Mining	27	83	33	30	19
Niger	Mining	54	31	55	60	47
Nigeria	Oil & gas	42	55	50	44	31
Norway	Oil & gas	86	1	77	84	97
Oman	Oil & gas	50	39	32	43	76
Papua New Guinea	Mining	47	46	50	50	40
Peru	Mining	62	16	68	57	62
Philippines	Mining	58	21	55	52	67
Qatar	Oil & gas	43	53	33	19	77
Russia	Oil & gas	45	50	47	40	47
Saudi Arabia	Oil & gas	36	69	23	24	60
Sierra Leone	Mining	46	49	62	35	40
South Africa	Mining	57	23	50	40	80
South Sudan	Oil & gas	32	76	42	47	5
Sudan	Oil & gas	21	86	26	26	11
Tanzania	Mining	49	42	54	40	53
Tanzania	Oil & gas	53	36	65	40	53
East Timor	Oil & gas	49	43	49	57	42
Trinidad and Tobago	Oil	64	14	64	57	71
Tunisia	Oil & gas	56	26	60	40	67
Tunisia	Mining	46	48	40	30	67
Turkmenistan	Oil & gas	11	88	11	0	21
Uganda	Oil & gas	44	51	42	42	47
Ukraine	Oil & gas	49	44	61	40	45
United Arab Emirates	Oil & gas	42	54	32	16	78
United Kingdom	Oil & gas	77	3	70	68	95
United States	Oil & gas	74	5	66	63	93
Uzbekistan	Oil & gas	29	80	40	25	22
Venezuela	Oil & gas	33	74	48	34	17
Vietnam	Oil & gas	48	45	57	30	59
Yemen	Oil & gas	30	78	50	28	11
Zambia	Mining	50	40	58	35	59
Zimbabwe	Mining	29	81	37	30	20

References

1. Self-description by the National Resource Governance Institute. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
2. Strategic Plan of the National Resource Governance Institute. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
3. Offices of NRGI. Retrieved on February 18th, 2018.
4. Priority countries in NRGI's work. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
5. Leadership Team at NRGI. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
6. Board of Directors at NRGI. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
7. Advisory Council of NRGI. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
8. Strategic Plan of the National Resource Governance Institute. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
9. Tools developed by NRGI. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
10. Mahanta, S. (February 1st, 2017). The House Kills an Anti-Corruption Measure. The Atlantic. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
11. Shafaie, A., Okenda, J.-P., Lassourd, T. (February 6th, 2018). The Democratic Republic of Congo deserves a better mining law. Financial Times. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
12. Hynes, C. (September 28th, 2017). This Yangon Tech Hub Is Helping Myanmar's Data Journalists With Their Reporting. Forbes. Retrieved February 18th, 2018.
13. NRGI (2018). Natural Resource Charter (2nd ed.). Retrieved February 23rd, 2018.
14. NRGI (2017). 2017 Resource Governance Index. Retrieved February 23rd, 2018.

External links

• Website of the Natural Resource Governance Institute