The resource governance dimensions of Hollywood blockbuster Black Panther, a groundbreaking online oil sector simulation and extractive contracts transparency were all hot topics this year.

Across the world, journalists have been key to uncovering malfeasance in the natural resources sector. Media have exposed illicit activities by international oil companies like Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria. They have shed light on Cameroon petroleum contracts that bring few benefits to locals and to national accounts.

Each year, the Natural Resource Governance Institute and Gadjah Mada University’s Department for Politics and Government host a residential training course on extractives governance in Indonesia. In 2018, NRGI and partners produced videos covering the course and interviews with course participants. 

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.

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. 

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.

In most countries, national governments negotiate extraction contracts with companies and collect the revenues, but it is those closest to the extraction site that see their physical and economic landscape change most dramatically.