Nigeria's Progress on Transparency

Dimieari Von Kemedi is the head of the Due Process and e-Governance Bureau for Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Von Kemedi is also chairman of the Bayelsa Expenditure and Transparency Initiative, a cooperation between local government, civil society, and industry launched by Bayelsa State with support from Revenue Watch Institute.

Asume Isaac Osuoka is the director of Social Action, an organization based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, that promotes citizen participation in the policies and practices in energy and mining, trade, and investment that affect human rights, democracy, and livelihoods. He is also founder and chair of the Steering Committee of Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform, a collaboration of civil society organizations promoting democratic accountability in the Niger Delta.

Alexandra Gillies is a PhD candidate in international relations at the University of Cambridge. Her dissertation research examines the political economy of oil sector reform in Africa, with a focus on Nigeria. She spent 2008 conducting field work as a Fulbright Fellow to Nigeria. Her publications include several articles on oil, transparency, and governance issues and the 2008 co-edited volume, Smart Aid for African Development. She has consulted on African governance projects for the World Bank, DFID, and USAID.

Antoine Heuty manages the Revenue Watch Institute Nigeria program with the Niger Delta Citizens Budget Platform, a coalition of NGOs working on budget monitoring in the Niger Delta and with the Government of Bayelsa State in Nigeria. Prior to joining Revenue Watch, he was Public Finance Economist with the Poverty Group at the United Nations Development Program, New York.