EITI Overview
3.5 billion people live in countries rich in oil, gas and minerals. With good governance the exploitation of these resources can generate large revenues to foster growth and reduce poverty. However when governance is weak, it may result in poverty, corruption, and conflict. The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) aims to strengthen governance by improving transparency and accountability in the extractives sector. The EITI sets a global standard for companies to publish what they pay and for governments to disclose what they receive. more
The United States and the international community must do more to prevent mismanagement and corruption in developing countries newly enriched by oil export revenues, according to a new Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff report. The findings of this report will be the subject of a panel discussion and reception at SAIS in Washington DC 20 November.
29-30 October the EITI Board met in Athens, Greece. The Board discussed the implementation of the initiative in each Candidate country and their progress towards validation, agreed on the Workplan for 2009, and prepared for the EITI Global Conference in Doha 16-18 February 2009. Minutes will soon be made available on this website.
13 EITI implementing countries are part of the the International Organisation of La Francophonie, OIF, which brings together 70 countries around the French language. The OIF has recommended the use of the EITI as an international standard of transparency. This recommendation was adopted at the twelfth OIF summit that was held 17-19 October 2008 in Quebec.
"Despite the persistence of Africa’s natural and man-made horrors, the latest trend is cheeringly positive", The Economist writes in a Leader article. Further it writes: "Another promising new mechanism is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a voluntary code that a score of African countries have adopted, with governments and foreign firms accounting openly for their dealings."
Representatives from 21 Candidate Countries met in Oslo from 7-9 October for the first EITI National Coordinator Meeting. The meeting was organised in response to strong demand from implementers for information exchange and peer learning regarding EITI implementation. In particular, there is a pressing need to accelerate activities with respect to the EITI’s Validation requirements.
EITI Chairman, Dr Peter Eigen met with the Iraqi Deputy Prime, Dr Barham Ahmad Salih, and the Minister for Oil, Hussain Ibrahim Saleh al-Shahristani, in Baghdad on 6 October. The Ministers reaffirmed their strong commitment to the initiative and their intent to progress towards revenue transparency by publishing monthly reports of their oil revenue.
The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations held 24 September a hearing on Resource Curse or Blessing? Africa's Management of its Extractive Industries. In his opening statement Senator Feingold said "The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is one of several international efforts to fight the resource curse, and the report urges the administration to give the EITI more vigorous support."
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Upcoming events
- 15 December 2008 - 19 December 2008
- 16 February 2009 - 18 February 2009
The EITI Blog
The EITI Blog gathers together ideas about the role of transparency and natural resources in creating economic growth and fighting poverty and corruption. The blog is authored by members of the EITI Secretariat and key stakeholders.
By Sefton Darby, Director of S.E.B. Strategy Ltd
With the 4th international EITI conference almost upon us it is perhaps worth doing a little advanced thinking about the kind of issues which the global "EITI community" will need to address in the 2 years that follow the conference. At the Lancaster House conference in 2003 a two-fold agenda was set: to broaden what was then a very small group of stakeholders into an international movement; and to work with EITI's "early adopters" such as Azerbaijan and Nigeria to figure out what improving transparency in the extractive industries actually meant. This lead to the March 2005 London conference at which one of the largest conference venues in Westminster was booked out to cope with the flood of global interest, and in which the first codifications of EITI policy and guidance - the EITI Criteria and the EITI Sourcebook - were agreed.
Key Documents
Conference website
Compliant Countries
To become Compliant, the country needs to complete validation process and meet all of the Validation Indicators. All Candidate countries must complete validation within two years.
Candidate Countries
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The EITI Newsletter is sent out bimonthly to friends and partners of the EITI from the International Secretariat. Comments and questions about it can be sent to Anders Tunold Kråkenes.