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The Board approved the application of the safeguard provisions for Validation of EITI countries.

Decision reference
2016-39 / BC-223
Decision basis
EITI Articles of Association 2016-2019, Article 12

The Board approved the application of the safeguard provisions for Validation of EITI countries, as proposed by the Implementation Commitee and Validation Committee.

Revised application of the EITI safeguard provisions in 8.3.c.i.:

Provision 8.3.c.i states that “country must achieve satisfactory progress on the following four requirements in order to avoid suspension: government engagement (1.1), company engagement (1.2), civil society engagement (1.3) and timely EITI reporting (4.8). Where a country achieves less than meaningful progress on data quality (4.9) and data comprehensiveness (4.1), the MSG will be required to disclose a time-bound action plans for addressing weaknesses in data reliability and comprehensiveness. Progress with implementation of this plan will be taken into account in subsequent validations.

The language in the EITI Standard is not proposed to be changed, but it is proposed that the EITI Board decides that the provision is applied as follows:

If the EITI Board concludes that a country has not made satisfactory progress on requirement 1.3 on civil society due to a deficiency related to the Civil Society Protocol, and/or requirement 4.8 on timely reporting, then suspension pursuant to provision 8.3.c.i would apply. 

If the EITI Board concludes that a country has not made satisfactory progress on requirements 1.1, 1.2, and/or 1.3  due to a deficiency in government, company or civil society stakeholder engagement that is unrelated to the Civil Society Protocol, the country will not be deemed to have made satisfactory progress overall and, thus, will not be deemed compliant, and the constituency concerned will be required to disclose an action plan for addressing the deficiency in stakeholder engagement which will be time-bound as determined by the EITI Board. Progress with implementation of this plan will be assessed in subsequent validations. In accordance with requirement 8.3.c.iv(1), if a country achieves meaningful progress in the second Validation, but without rectifying the deficiency, the country will be suspended and requested to undertake corrective actions until the third Validation.