Beyond governments: Lessons on multi-stakeholder governance from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Introduction Around the world, the extraction of oil, gas, minerals and metals is still nowhere near to bringing the benefits to ordinary citizens that it should. When designing the EITI, as with many international processes, the great temptation was to create an all-encompassing solution. Development history is littered with well-intentioned governance models that do not acknowledge existing processes and the vested interests of different players. They bite off more than the stakeholders can chew. The evolution of the EITI reflects the incremental pursuit of a focused ambition, but it also faces enormous challenges of communication, momentum and linkages to other and wider reform efforts. This article briefly explores what lessons can be drawn on what works in collective approaches, why it works, how it works and, perhaps more pertinently, where this approach does not work. It is a series of observations drawn from our personal experiences as practitioners. The early years In March 2005, the EITI stakeholders and implementing countries again met in London. UK Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn, summarised: Our experience in the four countries that have piloted EITI… is that while different countries have taken different approaches to implementation, this needs to be backed up by clear international rules of the game for the initiative to be effective and credible.7 These different approaches to the principles were boiled down to six EITI criteria that sought to establish ‘the rules of Commonwealth Governance Handbook 2013/14 103 Jonas Moberg and Eddie Rich Box 1: The history of the development of the EITI It is often thought that the EITI was launched in 2002. It is true that the then UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, outlined the idea of the EITI in a speech intended for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002. However, the problematic relationship between Prime Minister Blair and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe meant that the British Prime Minister never actually delivered his prepared remarks as intended. The idea of mentioning the EITI in that speech followed campaigning by Global Witness, other civil society organisations and individuals, like George Soros. Their campaign slogan of ‘Publish What You Pay’ was drawn from a Global Witness report entitled ‘A Crude Awakening’.1 Launched in December 1999, this focused on the opaque mismanagement of oil in Angola.2 Responding to the campaign in February 2001, Lord John Browne, the then CEO of BP, committed to publish payments made to the Angolan Government. This sparked a strong reaction from Angola. In his 2010 memoir, Beyond Business3, Lord Browne recalled how he had received a cold letter from the head of the Angolan national oil company, Sonangol. Lord Browne went on to conclude: ‘Clearly a unilateral approach, where one company or one country was under pressure to “publish what you pay”, was not workable.’4 Following the publication of the Blair speech, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) convened a meeting of civil society, companies and government representatives. There was agreement that some kind of reporting standard should be jointly developed. At a conference in London, June 2003, a statement of principles to increase transparency of payments and revenues in the extractive sector was agreed.5 These 12 EITI principles centred on the need for transparent management of natural resources. They affirmed that there was a belief that ‘a workable approach to the disclosure of payments and revenues is required, which is simple to undertake and use’.6 Following this meeting, a few countries – including Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Ghana and the Kyrgyz Republic – explored how these principles might be applied. Peru, the Republic of Congo, Sao Tome e Principe, Timor Leste, and Trinidad and Tobago later joined them.
CGH13_ebook
To see the actual publication please follow the link above