An Assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

The document evaluates the EITI, a global transparency standard for extractive industries, noting its success in improving investment climates and contract disclosure while highlighting failures in preventing corruption and ensuring civil society participation.

• The EITI serves as a voluntary global standard for the open and accountable management of mineral, oil, and gas resources, requiring the disclosure of information across the extractive industry value chain, from extraction to public benefit.
• A primary success of the EITI is enhancing the attractiveness of the mineral investment climate, as countries join to improve their reputations and lower perceived investment risks. For example, Norway, Guinea, and Mexico are members with high investment attractiveness scores according to the 2019 Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies.
• The EITI has made progress in contract transparency, including a requirement for member countries to disclose all contracts or licenses granted, entered, or amended from 1 January 2021. This is supported by private sector companies like Rio Tinto, Kosmos Energy, Glencore, and South32, and the ResourceContract.org repository, which contains nearly 2,500 documents from 96 countries.
• The initiative is limited by its voluntary nature; resource-rich countries are not obliged to join, and member countries that fail to meet requirements face suspension without obvious further consequences.
• Civil society representation within Multi-Stakeholder Groups (MSGs) is often undermined by government intimidation. In Azerbaijan, the government limited the operation of civil society organisations, leading to the country's suspension from the EITI.
• The EITI is unable to prevent corruption because it is not an investigative body; it reports what companies have paid rather than what they should have paid or how they circumvented taxes. For instance, a 2008 report in Zambia revealed unresolved revenue discrepancies of USD 66 million.

APA

Siyobi, B. (2021). An Assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Good Governance Africa. https://gga.org/an-assessment-of-the-extractive-industries-transparency-initiative/

Chicago

Siyobi, Busisipho. An Assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Good Governance Africa, 2021. https://gga.org/an-assessment-of-the-extractive-industries-transparency-initiative/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Siyobi |first1=Busisipho |title=An Assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative |publisher=Good Governance Africa |date=25 January 2021 |url=https://gga.org/an-assessment-of-the-extractive-industries-transparency-initiative/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{siyobi2021assessment, author = {Siyobi, Busisipho}, title = {{An Assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative}}, institution = {Good Governance Africa}, year = {2021}, month = jan, url = {https://gga.org/an-assessment-of-the-extractive-industries-transparency-initiative/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }