About PWYP U.S.
The Publish What You Pay (PWYP) campaign was born out of a 1999 Global Witness report entitled A Crude Awakening, detailing the role of the oil and banking industries in Angola’s 40-year civil war. It became clear that the refusal to release financial information by major multinational oil companies aided and abetted the mismanagement and embezzlement of oil revenues by the elite in the country.
The report concluded with a public call on the oil companies operating in Angola to 'publish what you pay”. However, it was clear that the lack of transparency in the extractive industries was also a significant concern in other resource-rich but poor countries.
George Soros, Chairman of the Open Society Institute, and Global Witness along with the other founding members, CAFOD, Open Society Institute, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK and Transparency International UK , decided to mount a worldwide campaign calling for all natural resource companies to disclose their payments to governments for every country of operation.
The U.S. coalition was launched shortly thereafter to advocate those insitutions based in the United States, including many of the multi-national oil companies, several international financial institutions and the United States government. The U.S. coalition continues to grow and is now comprised of over a dozen non-governmental organizations. For a full list of members, visit our 'Members' section.
The worldwide membership of Publish What You Pay now numbers in the hundreds of NGOs, and includes country coalitions in many resource-rich countries. For more on the global Publish What You Pay coalition, visit www.publishwhatyoupay.org
