The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is an initiative between countries that are rich on oil, gas and minerals. The EITI process evolved in 2003 with the EITI Lancaster House Conference in London and has since then expanded in its size and scope. The Initiative has several important goals such as creating economic growth and reducing poverty. The idea is that a more transparent system will improve the living conditions in these countries. The EITI process is in this sense an important part of anti-corruption efforts.
The EITI countries will reach these goals by creating a more transparent system, which means that they will publish all company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining. One of the strengths of the Initiative is that it is organized as a coalition between different levels of governance such as governments, companies, civil society groups, investors and international organizations. The EITI can be viewed as a basis for revenue management, for social and economic development, political stability as well as way of improving the investment climate.
On January 21st the Norwegian government published its first EITI Report, which means that all the payments paid by oil companies to the Norwegian government for the period of 2008 are made available to the public. By doing so, Norway is the first European, but also the first OECD country, to publish these data. The event is, not surprisingly, described as an important milestone in the history of the EITI. Norway has demonstrated good governance of its natural resources as well as promoting transparency internationally. Hopefully, other countries will follow its lead.
For more information about the Initiative, please visit EITI’s webpage