Revenue Watch and the EITI

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (www.eitransparency.org) is an internationally recognized mechanism to create transparency and participation in revenue transfers. Led by stakeholders from government, civil society and industry, this voluntary initiative calls for countries to publish their revenues and for companies to publish their payments.

Continued support for EITI is a strategic priority for the Revenue Watch Institute. RWI Director Lissakers was a founding member of the EITI advisory and governing board, which has included civil society groups such as Global Witness, as well as representatives of British Petroleum, Chevron, Exxon, Shell, and the governments of Azerbaijan, Nigeria, the UK, and the US, among others.

RWI has worked to develop and implement a strategy for transforming EITI from a UK-based initiative to an international effort based in Norway. Our efforts to promote EITI have included advocacy to persuade as many countries as possible to sign on to the standard and to embed EITI in national laws and policies; training and support for civil society groups promoting EITI locally; direct and indirect technical support to governments seeking to implement EITI; and collaboration with PWYP partners lobbying to "mainstream" EITI transparency principles in IFI policies, international accounting standards, government insurance programs for extractive industry investments such as OPIC and EXIM, and other key mechanisms across the sector.

Recent RWI support for EITI implementation has included visits and ongoing outreach in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Indonesia, Malaysia, Iraq, Yemen, Sierra Leone and South Africa, among other countries. We have focused particularly on Ecuador, Indonesia, Iraq and Yemen. Yemen officially endorsed EITI in March 2007. It is possible that the other three countries will endorse and begin implementing EITI in 2008.

In 2006, RWI released the report Eye on EITI on behalf of the global PWYP coalition, examining progress of EITI in the 21 countries that endorsed the agreement four years earlier. Eye on EITI outlines the steps necessary to curb corruption and help citizens to benefit from their country's natural resource wealth. The report finds that while two countries—Nigeria and Azerbaijan—have made significant progress in implementing EITI, in about half of the countries, governments have failed to match their rhetoric with tangible measures. It identifies issues that pose a fundamental challenge to the successful realization of EITI, such as the intimidation of civil society activists engaged in the struggle against corruption, and proposes concrete solutions for each of these areas for improvement.

In response to the dire need for a stronger technical knowledge base and understanding of the EITI process, RWI is working with industry expert David Goldwyn to create a civil society guide for extractive industries accounting and auditing, entitled Drilling Down, which is due for release in early 2008. The guide presents an overview of critical concepts and takes the reader through the basic stages of the EITI process. We will also release a training manual and accompanying CD.

RWI has also commissioned a short policy brief that examines innovations in various countries implementing EITI, to provide civil society and policymakers with a birds' eye view of global implementation and provide examples as they consider undertaking similar innovations. This brief, authored by former TI UK Deputy Chair David Murray, is due for release in early 2008.