Transparency and Attributions in the Extractives Sector: A Field Experiment in Western Uganda

Do transparency initiatives influence how communities assign blame and credit to policymakers? If not, there is reason to question their utility as a method for holding policymakers accountable. This issue is especially relevant for transparency initiatives aiming to help fight corruption and improve governance in the extractives sector (oil, mining, and natural gas). We analyze data from a field experiment conducted by a not-for-profit working on stakeholder engagement in Western Uganda’s oil sector. Treatment villages participated in multi-stakeholder forums that demonstrably improved transparency. However, participating in those forums did not change attributions of policy responsibility: villages tended to blame and credit the same decision-makers in baseline and endline surveys, in similar proportions, regardless of their treatment status. Our study highlights an important but under-emphasized threat to transparency initiatives in the extractives sector. More broadly, our findings are relevant to research on accountability in many of the complex, collaborative policy settings that increasingly characterize environmental governance around the world.