The Navarra Center for International Development (NCID)one of the eight projects of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra, has received a subsidy from the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) to conduct a research in Kenya and Mozambique as part of the 'Transparency and Accountability' initiative.

"The goal is to design two impact assessment projects in those countries to understand how a more transparent performance by companies extracting natural resources affects the individual and collective behavior of the government, public institutions, private companies...", explains NCID's researcher Alex Armand, who leads the project.  

These countries were chosen for their unique characteristics, he says, as natural resource extraction in both countries makes a relatively small contribution to their respective GDPs, are highly localized sectors, and are recently growing rapidly due to recent discoveries of natural gas and oil reserves.

Team: universities from four countries

"Natural resource wealth can be an important asset for a country's development , provided that companies' profits are reinvested in it. However, it is not clear how to contribute to development by improving governance and transparency in the management of natural resources," he stresses.

The other members of the research team are Pedro Vicente, from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal); Robert Mudida, from Strathmore University (Kenya); António Torres da Sousa Cruz, from the University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique); and Pedro Mendi, researcher of the NCID and professor at School of Economics at the University of Navarra.

International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) is an international NGO that provides grants to promote for evidence-based development policies and programs in low- and middle-income countries. Its goal is promote a more effective development to improve people's lives. It has offices in New Delhi, London and Washington DC. Its three main sources of funding are the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UKaid through department from development International and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.