Many countries that are rich in oil, gas and other minerals are nonetheless mired in poverty because the public revenues earned from selling these resources have been squandered through corruption and lack of government accountability.

Citizens of resource-rich countries cannot hold governments and extractive companies to account and ensure that mineral resources are used in a fair and sustainable way unless they have full information about the management of these resources.

Through field investigations and high-level advocacy, Global Witness has worked to increase transparency in the flow of revenues from oil, gas and mining companies to governments. As competition grows between the world's major economies for access to the natural resources of poor countries, our work is increasingly focussing on corruption in the awarding of oil, gas and mining rights to companies and the international trading of these resources. We are also stepping up our work on banks and middlemen who enable corruption.

Global Witness conceived and co-launched the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) campaign, a civil society coalition with more than 300 member groups around the world, which works to promote greater transparency in the oil, gas and mining industries. We are a leading participant in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global process launched in 2003 which brings together governments, companies and civil society groups to work for greater public disclosure and independent oversight of oil, gas and mining revenues.