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

"The objective of this proposal is to design two impact evaluation projects in Kenya and Mozambique to understand how increases in transparency related to natural resource extraction affect individual and collective behavior in different dimensions," according to NCID research fellow Alex Armand, who heads the project.

As he indicated, these countries were selected for their particular characteristics since the extraction of natural resources in both countries is a relatively small contribution to their respective GDPs and involves very localized sectors that have recently experienced rapid growth due to recent discoveries of natural gas and oil reserves.

The team: universities from four countries

"Natural resource wealth can be an important asset for the development of a country, as soon as its benefits are distributed to the productive side of the country. However, it is unclear how to best drive development by improving governance and transparency in the management of natural resources," as Armand stressed.

Other members of the research team include Pedro Vicente, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), Robert Mudida, Strathmore University (Kenya), António Sousa Torres da Cruz, the University Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique), and Pedro Mendi, NCID researcher and professor within the Faculty of Economics at the University of Navarra.

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