The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) is a partner and supporting organisation to the EITI. Twenty-seven companies are members of ICMM, through which they are supporters of the EITI. ICMM CEO Tom Butler attended the recent EITI Board meeting in Berlin and participated in a side event on contract transparency with EITI Chair Fredrik Reinfeldt. Tom explains ICMMs policy on contract transparency and the impact it has had in this Q&A.
EITI Berlin Board Meeting Blog: Day 2
Colombia became the first country in the Americas to meet or exceed all the requirements of the EITI Standard. The Board found Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Ukraine, and São Tomé and Princípe had made meaningful progress in implementing the EITI. The Board reviewed the expectations for EITI supporting companies and discussed how grievances under the EITI should be addressed.
EITI Berlin Board Meeting Blog: Day 1
The EITI continues to pioneer new aspects of transparency across the world. EITI Board members and around 150 stakeholders gathered today in Berlin for the 40th EITI Board meeting to discuss progress made by the EITI implementing countries, civic space to advocate on extractives governance, contract transparency and conflict minerals. The Board took a deeper look at major oil, gas and mining countries: Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The below is based on a speech given by Fredrik Reinfeldt, Chair of the EITI, at the EITI Board meeting side event on contract transparency in Berlin June 2018.
In 2013, the EITI Standard started to encourage contracts to be disclosed. Contracts, it is worth reminding ourselves, are legal documents that governments enter into on behalf of their people. Experience has shown that in many cases, in particular in countries with weak institutions and governance,
Mining giant Rio Tinto was the first major mining company to announce that they will support the public disclosure by countries of their mining contracts and licenses. By coming out in favour of contract transparency, the company is joining ranks with Total, as well as smaller oil companies Kosmos Energy and Tullow Oil. In a statement, EITI Chair, Fredrik Reinfeldt “welcomed and commended Rio Tinto’s policy, as a transparency leader in mining.” Simone Niven, EITI Board member and Group Executive,
Sharing practice on environmental and social reporting.
On 27 June 2018, the day before the 40th EITI Board meeting, friends, supporters and Board members of the EITI International met in Berlin to participate in a series of side meetings.
First, German civil society invited colleagues from other countries to share experiences around the social and environmental impact of the EITI process. Participants included representatives from civil society in México, Nigeria, Philippines,
While preparing for the Beneficial Ownership Global Conference that the EITI organised with the government of Indonesia in Jakarta last year, I witnessed how the discussion on ownership transparency started to gain traction. The Panama leaks had sparked a global debate on ownership transparency, Indonesia was due for its FATF evaluation which required them to develop a regulatory framework for beneficial ownership disclosure,
In the Philippines, communities can be involved in developing social and community programs with extractive companies' support, such as the construction of schools, hospitals and roads. Communities are then involved in monitoring the terms of contracts and making sure programs are fully delivered. In order to do this, access to timely, relevant, and comprehensive data and contracts is key. Equally important is understanding what the data means.
Nigeria EITI’s (NEITI) stakeholder workshop held in Abuja in May confirmed the trend towards disclosure by governments and companies, rather than through data collected by a third party. Transparency is becoming more automatic and widespread in Nigeria’s extractive extractives sector. This has implications for NEITI’s role.
In January 2017 the EITI Board recognised Nigeria’s role as a pioneer of extractive sector transparency.
I am currently the Director for Budget Performance at the Ministry of Finance in Mexico. I also lead a team of IT developers working on the Mexican Government’s Open Data Portal, known formally as the “Portal for the Extractive Industries Transparency”, or more commonly as just “The Portal”. I have been working with transparency issues for a number of years, including projects that complement the implementation of the EITI platform in Mexico.
