The EITI Board assessed the status of four implementing countries - Albania, Mali, Peru and Sierra Leone - at its meeting in Paris on 17 June.
What is Validation?
The EITI is implemented at the national level. In accordance with the EITI Standard, all EITI implementing countries are subject to periodic evaluation (“Validation”). Validation focuses on adherence to the EITI’s requirements on stakeholder engagement and government and company disclosures.
“The majority of EITI countries have now undergone Validation against the EITI Standard”, said EITI Executive Director Mark Robinson. “The overall direction of travel is positive with implementing countries showing a growing commitment to transparency, and using EITI data to inform public debate. These cases also illustrate how implementing countries are going beyond the EITI Standard, with innovative disclosures on hydropower, subnational EITI implementation and sub-national transfers.”
Albania
The EITI Board found that Albania had made meaningful progress overall with implementing the 2016 EITI Standard, with considerable improvements across several EITI requirements. The full Board decision is here.
Albania was recognised for strengthening its multi-stakeholder oversight of extractives governance, with a clear impact on the efficiency of subnational transfers of mining, oil and gas royalties to the country’s 61 local governments. The Board outlined six corrective actions for the mineral-rich country, including clarifying license allocations and transfers, subnational revenue flows, state participation and further strengthening civil society engagement in EITI. A key aspect of Albania’s EU accession ambitions, there is scope to use the EITI’s diagnostic elements to improve the accountability of extractive industry governance just as the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline comes online in 2020.
Mali
The EITI Board found that Mali had made meaningful progress overall with implementing the 2016 EITI Standard, with considerable improvements across several EITI requirements. The full Board decision is here.
The Board recognized Mali’s efforts to use the EITI to inform the public debate on natural resource governance, in challenging circumstances linked to the country’s political and security fragility. The Board congratulated Malian stakeholders for their efforts to go beyond EITI requirements, by using EITI reporting as a means of ensuring greater transparency and accountability in the public financial management of extractives revenues, particularly with the redistribution of taxes to local governments, to meet robust popular demand for this information.
Peru
The EITI Board found that Peru had made meaningful progress overall with implementing the 2016 EITI Standard, with considerable improvements across several EITI requirements. See here.
Since its first Validation, Peru has made significant progress in reporting on the state’s participation in the extractive sector. The EITI Board commended Peru on its five regional EITI processes in Apurimac, Arequipa, Loreto, Moquegua and Piura as a significant development in bringing transparency to the local level. The Board welcomed the improved coverage of social expenditures, which often represent a substantial part of companies' contribution to local development. The progress and plans to disclose more information on those contributions through DATAMART, an online portal, was weclomed as an example of EITI mainstreaming.
Sierra Leone
The EITI Board found that Sierra Leone had made meaningful progress overall with implementing the 2016 EITI Standard, with considerable improvements across several EITI requirements. The full Board decision is here.
The Board noted that EITI implementation in Sierra Leone had improved the availability of information and strengthened dialogue between stakeholders. There has been a significant drop in revenues generated by the sector from USD 74m in 2013 to USD 26m in 2016, due to the fall in commodity prices and the Ebola crisis. The Government of Sierra Leone has embedded provisions related to EITI in national legislation. However, the focus on reconciliation of extractives revenues collected at the national level has not yet been combined with efforts to clarify subnational revenue flows, both in terms of direct payments to subnational governments from companies and transfers from the national government. Moving forward, the Extractive Industries Revenues Act 2018 (EIRA) obliges companies to publish their payments to government.
“The Government of Sierra Leone is committed to using EITI as a tool to improve investment climate by providing a clear signal to investors and international financial institutions that the country is committed to greater transparency. This will aid in mitigating political and reputational risks as well as creating a level playing field in Sierra Leone.” - Minister of State and SLEITI MSG Chair, Francess Piagie Alghali, Sierra Leone
Learn more:
- Overview of Validation decisions and documentation pages here
- Summary and resources on the EITI Global Conference here