What is it about?
Academics and policy makers believe that transparency initiatives, such as the EITI, are useful because information disclosure empowers civil society organisations and ordinary citizens into action, but is this usually the case, and how do we investigate this claim? This paper offers a more nuanced account about the conditions that lead NGOs to either support or oppose the EITI, based on an in-depth study of Ghana
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Why is it important?
The article offers a heuristic tool, based on strategic calculations, the paradox of institutional representation, and cognitive dynamics, to make sense of NGO participation and opposition to transparency initiatives. It also applies this tool to explore how different NGOs use the EITI and alternative tools to negotiate around extractive sector governance
Perspectives
I hope this article offers an opportunity for thinking and debating , more systematically, the issue of public involvement in the EITI. Because of the importance of information disclosure for managing resources effectively and avoiding the 'resource curse', we need policy responses that are based on critical thinking, fine-grained analysis, and grounded research. The article is contributing to this endeavor
Nelson Oppong
University of Bath
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Negotiating transparency: NGOs and contentious politics of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in Ghana, Contemporary Social Science, November 2017, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/21582041.2017.1394483.
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