Blogs

The EITI and Zombie Transparency: what next for Azerbaijan?

Lucy Wallwork on May 31, 2013 · Leave a Comment 

One of my favourite catchphrases thrown around last week at the sixth EITI global conference was ‘zombie transparency’. Not a reference to jetlagged scenes over EITI Board meetings, as suggested by one Board member, but to the danger of implementing countries sleep-walking through the box-ticking exercises required by the standard, while contributing little to meaningful more »

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Saudi Arabia needs to reform its energy subsidies, but how?

Stefanie Heerwig on May 27, 2013 · Leave a Comment 

I was somehow surprised when Saudi Arabia’s Economy and Planning Minister Mohammed al-Jasser announced last week that their rock-bottom fuel prices, some of the lowest in the world, are after all a serious problem that needs to be dealt with. “This has become an increasingly important issue as these subsidies have become increasingly distorting to more »

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Sudan’s gold rush – state-inspired?

Johnny West on May 23, 2013 · Leave a Comment 

The army medical orderly tells me he has seen men die in front of him, crushed by wells that collapsed in the middle of Sudan’s desert. And in the next breath he tells me if I have any money to invest, he’ll join me to dig for gold in Kordofan: “All we need are a more »

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