Natural Resources and Violent Conflict - WaterWiki.net

who gets the money? 73practices and did not propose guidelines that companies must endorseor implement. Because of time limits, the website notes that MMSD didnot seek to “solve or even to address all of the issues that will ever befaced by the mining and minerals industries. At best, it provided a startingpoint for identifying different concerns.” 31 One of its concreteactivities was to lay the basis for the future development of a mining sectorsupplement to the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. The reportand other relevant material are available on the MMSD website, but theproject’s office is now closed and will distribute no further material.The sustainable development principles state the need to ensuretransparency by providing all stakeholders with access to relevant andaccurate information. Box 3.3 presents some of the recommendationsrelating to resource revenue transparency.The recommendations in the final report are more numerous anddetailed and similarly call for the disclosure of payments from companiesas well as transparency of revenues by host governments. TheMMSD initiative featured a working group focused on understanding“the obstacles which have prevented some developing countries fromusing mineral revenues as an effective catalyst to economic and socialdevelopment, the so-called resource trap.” 32 Several working paperswere distributed, and a workshop was conducted in 2001.MMSD is distinctive in its commercial angle and its initiation byindustry. This is evident in its focus on market mechanisms and enterpriseissues such as corporate governance and corporate culture. Thisis likely to enhance its credibility among private sector stakeholders.Although the recommendations are relevant and quite specific, theyare not a set of codes or principles that have been endorsed. Finally,the MMSD initiative was limited in time, although the Global ReportingInitiative website states that “we anticipate this work will continuebeyond the release of the MMSD final report in April 2002.” 33In summary, MMSD has potential strong and weak points:• It addresses resource revenue transparency specifically.• It was initiated by the mining industry itself, which probablygives it credibility in the sector as well as in the private sector in general.The key role of industry may set an important precedent.• The framework does not commit firms to any actions.• The initiative is no longer operational.Global e-Sustainability Initiative. The Global e-SustainabilityInitiative (GeSI) is a joint initiative of the International TelecommunicationsUnion and the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP). The GeSI website states that the initiative aims to create aforum for the information and communications technology sector that