History
18 November 2009: New report on the history and origins of the PWYP released!
What are the origins of the Publish What You Pay campaign?
In December 1999 Global Witness published a report called A Crude Awakening, an exposé of the apparent complicity of the oil and banking industries in the plundering of state assets during Angola’s 40-year civil war. It became clear that the refusal to release financial information by major multinational oil companies aided and abetted the mismanagement and embezzlement of oil revenues by the elite in the country. The report concluded with a public call on the oil companies operating in Angola to ‘publish what you pay’.
It was clear however that the lack of transparency in the extractive industries was also a significant concern in other resource-rich but poor countries. Therefore in June 2002 Global Witness along with other founding members, CAFOD, Open Society Institute, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK and Transparency International UK, launched the worldwide PWYP campaign, calling for all natural resource companies to disclose their payments to governments for every country of operation.
The small founding coalition of NGOs was soon joined by others such as Catholic Relief Services, Human Rights Watch, Partnership Africa Canada, Pax Christi Netherlands and Secours Catholique/CARITAS France, along with an increasing number of groups from developing countries.
How has the PWYP coalition grown over time?
From a few, mostly UK-based groups at its launch, PWYP members today span nearly 60 countries, with PWYP national affiliated coalitions in 31 of these. The rise in civil society participation can be attributed primarily to the great thirst for change in resource-rich developing countries among civil society groups given the devastating impact of the resource curse. The campaign is largely consistent with ongoing local priorities regarding good governance, corporate accountability and poverty reduction and thus has served as a useful vehicle for local groups to continue to push for greater access to information and accountability.
How has the campaign’s scope evolved since its launch?
PWYP’s call for companies to “publish what you pay” and for governments to “publish what you earn” is a necessary first step towards a more accountable system for the management of natural resource revenues.
However it is impossible to ensure proper management of natural resource wealth by looking exclusively at revenues. PWYP members therefore also call for transparent and accountable management and expenditure of public funds as an essential way to addressing the poverty, corruption and autocracy that too often plague resource rich countries. This is the campaign’s “publish what you spend” objective.
A further call of PWYP is for the public disclosure of extractive industry contracts and for licensing procedures to be carried out transparently in line with best international practice. This is central to any effort to trace revenues and expenditures in the extractive industries as contracts determine the benefits, obligations and indeed the transparency of the agreements between countries and industry. This is the campaign’s “publish what you don’t pay/should pay” objective.
