Overview

The fifth EITI Global Conference in Paris will feature four plenary sessions and numerous executive sessions and workshops, all evolving around the headline ‘transparency counts’. There will also be special events such as the EITI Chair’s awards and the EITI National Exhibition. The conference events and sessions will reflect the following two main themes:

Consolidating the impact of the EITI

The EITI has been growing strongly over the last two years and has become the leading international standard for governance and transparency in the extractive sector. 33 countries are currently implementing the EITI and several other resource rich nations have signalled their intent to commit to the EITI. The past year has seen unprecedented levels of activity in EITI implementing countries with 20 of the 33 candidate countries having undertaken validation. 24 implementing countries have produced EITI reports – more than half of them have produced reports for the first time this year. The 5th Global Conference will be the time to take stock of what the EITI standard means for the citizens of resource rich countries whose lives it was designed to improve. It is an opportunity to discuss the impacts of the EITI for countries, companies and civil society alike.

The future of the EITI and revenue transparency

Despite the progress and impact of the EITI, making natural resources benefit everyone still remains a key global challenge. The conference will be the time to reflect on how to address key global and strategic challenges of the future. These include the need to improve and deepen EITI reporting, increase engagement with emerging resource rich economies, the role of existing and new legislations with implications for EITI implementation, ensuring adequate civil society representation and the need to improve the rules of the EITI, ensuring that benefits of the EITI are enhanced. The sessions and debates around this theme will seek to engage stakeholders in discussions about how and why the EITI will continue to matter even more in the future. 

We hope that the sessions will help us reach the following conference objectives: 

i. Convey the impact that the EITI has in implementing countries through a strong focus on sharing experiences and demonstrating how revenue transparency and the EITI multi-stakeholder process changes countries.

ii. Give momentum to policy debates that will shape the future of the EITI such as how EITI reporting can be strengthened and addressing policy issues that have emerged as a result of experiences gained so far. 

iii. Increase commitment and level of engagement in key outreach countries.

iv. Endorse the recommendations of the EITI Board on key policy issues for the EITI including revisions to the EITI Rules.