Learning Objectives

Institutions, Laws, Good Governance and Extractive Industries

After studying this unit, you should be able to:

• Be able to explain what the concept ‘institutions’ means
• Be able to explain how transparency and a Freedom of Information Law can influence the resource curse
• Be able to outline the relationship between accountability and corruption
• Be able to outline the relationship between corruption and the resource curse
• Know how parliament can increase horizontal and vertical accountability
• Understand in which way parliament can use its representation function to improve participation in the extractive industries sector
• Recognize the importance of cooperating with civil society and the media in order counter the resource curse

Introduction and Overview

This Unit will show the relationship between institutions and the resource curse. Good governance concepts such as transparency, accountability and checks and balances are mechanisms to counter corruption and the resource curse. The Unit will give a detailed outline of the concept of transparency, the merits of a Freedom of Information law and it will be explained how parliament and other government agencies can play a role in assuring that information is disseminated and accessible to the community. Regarding corruption and accountability, the unit will explain how a code of ethics and/or code of conduct can help give guidelines that outline expected behavior of public officials.