Submitted by Ikubaje John, Jun 7, 2007 05:51

Your article is interesting and educative but it is however sad to some of us that are development practitioner in Africa that the level of government/leadership commitment that is neccessary to turn the natural resources into blessings is lacking in the continent.. Extraractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Initiatives are begining to yield results in Africa. In Nigeria, the EITI has been institutionalised and fully backed by the law. Extractive industries revenue disclosure has commenced in several African countries but much more important is the transparency and accountability of extractive revenue expenditure. While Africa is making transparency and accountability progress in extractive revenue more attention should be paid to how the revenue are expended.

The EITI and PWYP initiatives must be made a priority policy issues at the levels of sub-regional and regional organisation in Africa.

I look forward to reading your book, the Dutch Disease in Africa

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