This level of immediate national press coverage reaffirms the importance of payments to government data to citizens in resource-rich countries, and how it is increasingly informing national debates on countries’ natural resources management.

Political parties can help ensure that their country gets the best deal for the extraction of its resources, manages revenues for the long-term best interests of citizens and avoids the resource curse.

NRGI president and CEO Daniel Kaufmann and NRGI advisors Alexandra Gillies and Patrick Heller share some ideas for keeping state companies accountable.

Villanueva is the director of the Philippine civil society organization Alternative Forum for Research in Mindanao. AFRIM focuses on natural resource management, sustainable rural development and peacebuilding.

Yan Naung Oak is a 2017 School of Data fellow for NRGI Myanmar working on data literacy and data availability in the jade mining sector. Last year, he participated in NRGI's massive online open course, Natural Resources for Sustainable Development: The Fundamentals of Oil, Gas, and Mining Governance. These are his takeaways. 

To ensure transparency and promote informed public debate on the proposed oil-backed loan and its terms, the Nigerian government needs to make these disclosures. 

NRGI offers global and regional courses (both in-person and online) that are tailored to civil society advocates, government officials, journalists, parliamentarians and other actors who are working to improve the management of oil, gas and minerals.

It was a turbulent year for extractives governance, bringing both setbacks and achievements. That said, there also is much cause for optimism.

As an eventful year in resource governance draws to a close, revisit these top 10 reads from NRGI.