The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) Board Unveiled the Revised EITI Standards By Livinus Njume Esambe (PhD)

According to the EITI Board Chair, Rt. Hon. Helen Clark the revised standards include updated requirements for the 2023 EITI Standard recently agreed by representatives of member countries, companies, and civil society organizations participating in the EITI Board. She averred that the 2023 EITI Standard strengthens EITI disclosures and governance requirements to improve understanding of ‘the impact of the energy transition, address corruption risks, promote gender equity and strengthen revenue collection.’ Helen Clark also said that the global shift towards a low-carbon economy would have a range of impacts on the citizens of resource-rich countries.?‘ The Strength of the EITI has been to adapt to current and evolving challenges. Those associated with the energy transition are now reflected in the EITI Standard.’ she said.?She commended governments in EITI member countries, companies, and civil society on working together to achieve consensus on these revisions.

She was speaking in Dakar during the presentation of?the 2023 EITI Standard to stakeholders at the EITI Global Conference on?June 14, 2023. Since it was first introduced in 2013, the EITI Standard has evolved through innovations at both country and company levels, with the processes for refining the 2023 EITI Standard underpinned by wide consultations.?The EITI Anniversary Report charts the organisation’s journey and progress over the past two decades, demonstrating how the EITI’s disclosure framework has evolved to bring greater transparency across the entire extractive sector value chain through its multi-stakeholder approach.?‘The revised standards drew on lessons learned in the past ten years of implementation to identify relevant and timely disclosures that would inform policy and public debate, she added.?The most recent revisions strengthen and clarify the EITI Requirements and identified important new areas for disclosure, including on commitments, policies and plans for the energy transition, capital and operating expenditure costs, carbon pricing mechanisms, carbon taxes, greenhouse gas emissions and subsidies.?

Also, the revised standards require countries to document the rationale for any fast-tracking of extractive licenses, to strengthen safeguards in the allocation of those licenses as projected demand for minerals required for the energy transition increases.?Besides, anti-corruption provisions have now been explicitly integrated into the objectives of the EITI Requirements, with all companies supporting the EITI and participating in EITI reporting, including state-owned enterprises, now expected to disclose their anti-corruption policies.?In addition, the EITI Standard would encourage a minimum ownership threshold for disclosing the identities of individuals who own or control companies, and clarifies beneficial ownership disclosures for state-owned enterprises. Such disclosures, the EITI clarified, are important for identifying conflicts of interest and the participation of politically engaged persons in the extractive sector.?Revisions also promote the participation of women in the extractive sector by extending gender-disaggregated disclosures to employment and benefits from the sector. They extend disclosures related to environmental and social monitoring and impact as well as community consultations.?

The revised EITI Standard paves the way to developing a leaner approach to reporting revenues and payments to manage reporting costs, drawing on lessons learned from adapting EITI reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic. The global EITI, and which believes a country’s natural resources belong to its citizens, has a mission to promote understanding of natural resource management, strengthen public and corporate governance and provide the data to inform greater transparency and accountability in the extractives sector. The Group believes by becoming members of the EITI, 57 countries have committed to disclose information along the extractive industry value chain – from how extraction rights are awarded, to how revenues make their way through the government and how they benefit the public.?Through participation in the EITI, countries agree to a common set of rules governing what has to be disclosed and when – the EITI Standard.?In sum, the key changes has five axis; anti-corruption, energy transition, gender, social and environmental, revenue collection and impact and stakeholder engagement. It is easier to read.