It’s been an intensive year, with many lessons learned. Here, we share our key insights with the larger EITI community.
To validate means generally to substantiate, to verify accuracy and reliability.
In the context of the EITI, Validation refers to the independent assessment and verification of compliance by a country with the provisions of the EITI Standard.
Making information public always bears the risk that people discover mistakes. But that’s what will make it better, too. It’s what happened when we started publishing open EITI data on a large scale.
I wish I came up with the slogan used in the title of this blog. But the credit goes to the Government Digital Service (GDS) team in the UK. It’s one of their design principles. I learned more about it when I visited them in March this year,
Here is my attempt to explain why project level reporting is much more than an obscure technical detail.
But first, a little background…
At the beginning, the EITI only required that countries lump together all payments companies make to government. Countries could publish just two figures – how much governments said that they received from companies and how much companies said that they had paid.
The world’s fourth most populous country, spread over 7000 islands, is tackling weaknesses in its revenue collection from oil, gas and mining companies.
Indonesia has launched a series of reforms in the extractive sector that aim to improve revenue collection. For a country where the petroleum and mining sector accounts for 22% and 10% of total state revenues respectively, these reforms are critical to the government’s finances and to boost investment.
After months of political transition, I am witnessing a dynamic and ambitious EITI in Myanmar. The key is getting the right people around the table, discussing tough issues. It reminds me very much of my time as the Philippines’ National Coordinator.
Transitioning to a new government always poses challenges – not least in the case of Myanmar where the change entailed an almost complete overhaul of the existing institutions.
On a continent where natural resources have for so long been associated with poor governance, conflict and corruption, this piece takes a glass half full look at the progress made in governing Africa’s natural resources, and why transparency matters.
Yet, transparency is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end: an end where a true “Africa Rising” begins.
Natural resources: the backbone of the Africa Rising narrative
Knowing how to model a project’s revenue can strengthen the capacity of the government.
When the EITI set out its work ten years ago, the core idea was to reconcile and compare the payments made by companies and governments made to each other to see if they added up to the same amount. This can and has uncovered problems such as corruption. In 2013 the Standard was expanded to cover the whole value chain including the legal, fiscal,
Members of the Norwegian multi-stakeholder group met in the margins of the EITI board meeting in Oslo to discuss the government’s recent proposal to mainstream the Norwegian EITI process. The plan is to move from producing reports to making use of existing government and company disclosures.
In practice, a number of EITI implementing countries are already making the information required by the EITI Standard available through government and corporate reporting systems (databases, websites,
In this case study, the EITI International Secretariat highlights Albania as an example of innovation.
The Government of Albania participates in the oil and gas industry through Albpetrol, the state-owned oil company engaged in exploration, development and production of crude oil and gas.
At 31 December 2014, Albpetrol held shares in five Production-Sharing Agreements (PSAs) with other companies operating the production of oil and gas. In addition,
Today, the Board discussions were the culmination of two days of strategic discussions, committee meetings and extensive deliberations aiming towards one goal: to improve governance of the extractives in EITI countries.
Suriname captured the spotlight on day two as it was welcomed by the Board as the 52nd EITI implementing country. The Board also took key decisions on Liberia and Mali’s progress towards meeting the EITI Standard.