EITI Newsletter: March 2017

Jay OwenReforming Global Finance, Beyond GDP

March 2017 Newsletter

EITI reaffirms its leadership on revenue transparency

On 8-9 March in Bogotá Colombia, the EITI Board laid out how countries shall report at project level in the 51 implementing countries. With this decision, the EITI remains the leading standard for transparency in revenues.

The Board also assessed the performance of its 51 implementing countries against the 2016 EITI Standard. It found Ghana, Mauritania and Sao Tome and Principe, to have made meaningful progress. Kyrgyz Republic, the Solomon Islands and Tajikistan were found to have made inadequate progress. The Board set the corrective actions they need to take to continue on the path towards meeting the EITI Standard.

Azerbaijan left the EITI shortly after the Board had suspended the country for not meeting the corrective actions related to civil society space, set out in October 2016.

Read more >

 

The Board meets in Bogotá – highlights

 

This is what happened, day by day
Day 1. Reaffirming EITI project-level reporting: the greater the detail – the stronger the impact.
Day 2. Multi-stakeholderism in action.
Photo album of the meeting.

Azerbaijan withdraws from the EITI
The Government of Azerbaijan withdrew from the EITI. The announcement followed the country’s suspension for not fully meeting the corrective actions related to civil society. Find out more.

President Juan Manuel Santos and EITI Chair Fredrik Reinfeldt meet in Bogota
President Santos expressed his hopes that by the end of his term in office, he would leave a stronger EITI-Colombia with a clear strategy for addressing the challenges of the Colombian oil, gas and mining sector. Find out more.Validations in six countries highlight progress and weaknesses in sector governanceDuring the Board meeting six countries were assessed against the 2016 Standard. Ghana, Mauritania and Sao Tome and Principe were found to have made meaningful progress. The Kyrgyz Republic, the Solomon Islands and Tajikistan were found to have made inadequate progress. All countries will need to address corrective actions.

EITI Board recognises Ghana’s efforts to improve natural resource governance
The EITI in Ghana has led to increased ground rents from mining and harmonisation of mineral royalty rates, among other improvements.
Find out more.

Kyrgyz Republic: EITI reawakened
EITI developments have been positive but slow in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Board encouraged the government to continue with their efforts to address funding concerns, overcome legal barriers to implementation, assess impact and follow-up on lessons learnt.
Find out more.

Mauritania continues to strengthen extractive industry governance
The country made meaningful progress, but further work is needed in data quality assurance and improving the comprehensiveness of reporting by government, industry as well as state-owned enterprises.
Find out more.

Managing expectations in São Tomé and Príncipe
The African island nation makes meaningful progress and is making information about the nascent petroleum sector available to the public.
Find out more.

EITI assessment identifies mining governance shortfalls in Solomon Islands
The country needs to address poor reporting quality and weak engagement of government, companies and civil society as part of their corrective actions.
Find out more.

Tajikistan EITI assessment identifies issues that deter foreign direct investments 
The EITI has uncovered issues that deter foreign direct investments such as cumbersome, lengthy and discretionary licensing procedures, an unclear fiscal regime, hidden company ownership, and the lack of up to date geological data.
Find out more.

Assessing progress in extractive resource governance

What is EITI Validation about and what does it seek to measure? Read our introduction page on Validation.

So far, 11 countries have been validated under the 2016 EITI Standard. See our a full overview of the Validation results and check out which countries are up next for Validation.