Past Events
Petroleum and Poverty
Development Implications for Africa and the Caspian
| Location: | OSI-New York |
| Event Date: | June 26, 2003 |
| Speakers: | Oliver Mokom, Ian Gary, Svetlana Tsalik |
Speaking at a OSI Forum in New York on June 26, 2003, three experts discussed the impact of oil revenues on developing nations in Africa and the Caspian region. The panel discussion focused on the "resource curse"—a pattern in which poor countries become poorer when they start selling lucrative oil exploration rights.
The speakers—Oliver Mokom and Ian Gary of Catholic Relief Services, and Svetlana Tsalik of the Central Eurasia Project's Revenue Watch—cited oil pipeline and extraction projects in Africa as templates for how oil wealth can actually undermine a nation’s economic health. The experts called on international financiers, energy conglomerates, and large aid-giving countries to overhaul the way such projects work.
