Liberia undergoes first EITI Validation under the EITI Standard and demonstrates meaningful progress despite Ebola disruption.
Wednesday 24 May 2017 – Liberia was one of the first countries to begin implementing the EITI in 2005. Liberia’s recent Validation has demonstrated “meaningful progress” in implementing the EITI Standard. The decision was made on Wednesday by the EITI Board,
EITI implementation has proved resilient despite political instability and terrorist attacks.
Wednesday 24 May 2017 - The EITI Board has concluded that Mali has made meaningful progress in implementing the EITI Standard. The Board reached this decision following a Validation process. Validation is the EITI’s independent quality assurance mechanism and includes an extensive consultation of stakeholders.
View full decision including the scorecard and supporting documentation
The EITI Board today approved Suriname’s EITI candidature application.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, Chair of the EITI, today welcomed Suriname as a new member of the EITI family.
He said: “We hope that the EITI will help Suriname to ensure that its natural resources are used for the development of the country”.
The EITI in Suriname creates a platform for the government, companies and civil society to contribute to ensuring good governance of the abundant natural resources.
Minister of Energy and Water “crashes” EITI workshop in Beirut. “We’re serious about this process. We are not looking for a rubber stamp”.
“Sometimes you invite a minister to an event and they end up cancelling in the last minute”, said EITI Regional Director Pablo Valverde at a recent workshop in Beirut. “You don’t often see the opposite, a minister showing up to a workshop without an invitation!”
Newly appointed Minister of Mines and Petroleum Nargis Nehan prepares to tackle lack of development in the sector.
Speaking to Deputy Head of EITI Eddie Rich in Kabul on Wednesday, President Ashraf Ghani reflected on the importance of reforming the extractive sector in Afghanistan:
“Agriculture may be critical for stability in our country, but mining and hydrocarbons will be critical to prosperity. We need to find a way to develop the sector in a sustainable, long-term manner”.
Formalising the sector facing challenges.
The extractive sector in Madagascar contributed USD 61 million to the economy in 2014 according to the country’s recently published EITI 2014 Report. The sector accounts for 30% of total exports and 4% of GDP. The vast majority of revenue comes from the mining sector (USD 56 million) with the rest from petroleum. But it is the informal mining sector that employs the most people – up to 500 000 according to the Report.
With ten years’ experience, EITI Niger can now leverage reforms to improve the accountability of its extractives governance.
As Niger takes stock of the impact of the past decade of EITI implementation, it has the opportunity to assess whether the EITI is meeting the public’s demands for information. Rather than ever-expanding EITI Reports, there is an opportunity to open up government systems to ensure that the information most in demand is available regularly and routinely.
First EITI Report covering mining, oil and forestry highlights opportunities for improving sector governance.
Malawi published its first EITI Report for 2014/2015 in April 2017. The mining sector in Malawi accounts for less than 1% of the country’s GDP and about 1% of government revenue, but developing the sector has become a government priority. The petroleum sector is at exploration stage.
Seeing the woods from the trees
UK EITI Report reveals a third consecutive year of loss in the sector.
The UK is the world’s 21st largest producer of oil and gas. 2015 saw a dramatic fall in the global oil price from USD 99 in 2014 to USD 52 a barrel. This meant that it was a tough year for the industry globally with investment in the sector in the UK significantly reduced.
Findings underscore need to improve tracking of revenue flows to clarify fund utilization.
Papua New Guinea’s Liquefied Natural Gas (PNG LNG) project came online in 2014, increasing government revenues and reliance on the extractive sector. According to PNG’s EITI Report for 2014, the country saw 8% economic growth in 2014, 91% of which was attributed to the extractive industries. This growth was largely driven by the first exports from the PNG LNG project,