Natural Resource Governance Institute |

"State capture" is defined as the efforts of individuals or firms to shape the formation of laws, policies, and regulations of the state to their own advantage by providing illicit private gains to public officials. This page hosts the work of NRGI experts on state capture and its effects, along with news coverage of such work.

This briefing is explores ways company disclosures can be used by government, civil society, media and other oversight actors to better understand the revenues generated within Ghana’s gold sector and use this new data source as an accountability tool within the country.

Natural resources represent a potentially transformational opportunity to support development. In this 12-week course produced by NRGI, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and the World Bank, learn about efforts to sustainably manage extractive industry investments from internationally recognized experts in resource governance, including NRGI staff. The course launched 9 September.

The index measures the quality of resource governance in 81 countries that together produce 82 percent of the world’s oil, 78 percent of its gas and a significant proportion of minerals, including 72 percent of all copper. It is the product of 89 country assessments (eight countries were assessed in two sectors), compiled by 150 researchers, using almost 10,000 supporting documents.

2017 Resource Governance Index

Publishing these contracts will create space for much-needed public scrutiny of deals that can be worth billions of dollars to the people of Nigeria. It also provides an important opportunity for the government and companies to build public trust in the petroleum industry.

The Charter is a set of principles for governments and societies on how to best harness the opportunities created by extractive resources for development. It is not a recipe or blueprint for the policies and institutions countries must build, but instead provides the ingredients successful countries have used.