Guidance on civil society engagement (1.3)

Civil society participation is key to sucessfully implementing the EITI.

In accordance to requirement 1.3. Civil society engagement, civil society needs to be fully, actively and effectively engaged in the EITI process.

The EITI protocol on the participation of civil society is an integral part of the EITI Standard and further specifies the EITI's intepretation of this provision.

The relationship between companies, civil society and the government is formalised in the multi-stakeholder group (MSG, see own guidance page).

Country examples

There are different reasons why countries do not achieve satisfactory progress on civil society engagement. Some examples below.

2016 Validation of Tajikistan found that the country has made meaningful, but not satisfactory progress on 1.3. A key concern relates to the ability of civil society to freely express opinions about natural resource governance. See pp. 17 and 19 of the initial assessment of Tajikistan available here. Recommendations can be found on page 38 of the initial assessment.
The Board noted that the government recently passed new regulations which may cause legal and regulatory barriers for civil society. The EITI Council (MSG) is encouraged to undertake sustained outreach activities directed at CSOs that are not currently on or affiliated with the Council. This could include further dialogue on these challenges both within Tajikistan and externally with other EITI implementing countries (see corrective action, nr. 2)

2016 Validation of Timor-Leste found that the country has made meaningful, but not satisfactory progress on 1.3. Capacity constraints are affecting civil society's ability to be fully and effectively engaged in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the EITI process. See pp. 18 of the initial assessment of Timor-Leste available here. Recommendations can be found on page 35 of the initial assessment.
As part of the corrective actions, the civil society constituency is requested to develop and disclose an action plan for addressing the deficiencies in civil society engagement documented in the initial assessment and Validator’s report by 11 April 2017.