EITI Updates from Washington, D.C.

From May 11-15, leaders from the global transparency movement met in the United States. All last week and in the following days, Revenue Watch posted updates and reflections from events convened by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the World Bank. EITI board member and Revenue Watch chairman Anthony Richter also blogged throughout the week's events, which culminated in the formal meeting of the EITI Board.

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World Bank EITI Reporting Meeting Focuses on Disaggregation

As part of "EITI Week" in Washington, D.C., the World Bank hosted a meeting on May 13 to facilitate a discussion among multiple EITI stakeholders about the state of EITI reporting and how it can be improved. While the format and content of EITI reports has always been a source of debate, improved trust among the various stakeholders in the EITI process—civil society, government and industry—may help further the standard of disaggregated company reports of payments. RWI's Rebecca Iwerks attended and reports on the conversations and debates that took place. Read more ...

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Obiageli Ezekwesili: EITI at the Crossroads

Vice President for Africa of the World Bank and formerly Nigeria's Minister for Solid Minerals Development and Chairperson of Nigeria's EITI, Obiageli Ezekwesili is a strong-willed visionary who played a crucial role in the establishment of EITI when she represented Nigeria on the International Advisory Group and continues to support it from within the Bank. As she addressed the national coordinators from some 25 EITI candidate countries she asked "What comes after validation?"Read more ...

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Transparency Advocates Discuss EITI Implementation at Sub-National Roundtable

On May 12, the EITI Secretariat hosted a roundtable discussion about opportunities to broaden EITI to also include sub-national regions. Though working with sub-national regions has been an EITI interest for several years, Ghana is currently the only implementing country to report sub-national revenues. Revenue Watch Senior Economist Antoine Heuty spoke about RWI's extensive work at the sub-national level in Nigeria's Bayelsa state and the meeting included perspectives from ongoing sub-national work in Peru, Colombia and Ghana. Read more ...

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Obama Adviser Speaks to World Bank EITI Reception

It was a long day of not the most scintillating stuff, board and committee legalism and the like, but it finished on a high note. At the World Bank's EITI reception Obama adviser Michael Froman stopped by to offer remarks. Froman is, of course, deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, serving jointly at the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. Read more ...

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RWI Calls for U.S. Implementation of EITI

Revenue Watch urged U.S. and foreign policymakers to embrace the standards and principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), as its leaders gathered from May 11-15 in Washington. U.S. endorsement of the initiative would set a powerful example for the rest of the world. "The standards for government revenue disclosure and for civil society engagement call for new practices, but bring great reward in terms of reputation, trust and profitability," said RWI chair Anthony Richter. Read more ... | Français

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Down the Tubes: Following Pipeline Revenues

A quick post on transit revenues, before the EITI board meeting starts: Revenue Watch and EITI are jointly hosting a workshop today on how and whether we include transit fees for piping or shipping hydrocarbon resources in the framework of EITI, which has quickly become the global standard for extractive revenue disclosure. Read more ...

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Today's Silk Road: The New Front Line for Transparency?

As the natural gas payment disputes between Russia and Ukraine this winter demonstrated, there is a great need for transparency in energy trade and transit, and RWI continues to work with its partners in post-Soviet countries to advocate expanding the EITI agenda to include transit revenues. RWI Caucasus and Central Asia Regional Coordinator Galib Efendiev reports on the strides made at a meeting last week in Prague, as leaders from the European Union and several post-Soviet countries laid the groundwork for a new era of policy cooperation and reform between the EU and Europe's "Eastern neighborhood" in an effort to reduce Europe's heavy energy dependence on Russia and realign the balance of power in the region's energy sector. Read more ...

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RWI Workshop on Revenue Transparency in the Hydrocarbon Transit and Transportation Sector

On Thursday, May 14, RWI hosted a strategic roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C. on revenue transparency in the hydrocarbon transit and transportation sector, moderated by RWI Chair Anthony Richter and including panelists Jonas Moberg, head of the EITI Secretariat, Ingilab Ahkmedov of the Public Finance Monitoring Center in Azerbaijan, Willy Olsen, a former Senior Executive of Statoil, and numerous other civil society experts from transit countries.

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Anthony Richter on EITI Week

It's that time again. EITI "week" in Washington, DC. Well, it's been a while since I posted but I wanted my loyal readership ;) to know what I have been up to since Doha. In March I spent a few days in Europe and took the opportunity to meet some of the new board members of the EITI. Read more ...

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