4 March 2010
In 2009, BIC conducted a survey of civil society organizations in 19 countries involved in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a coalition that works with the World Bank Group to promote transparency in extractives. The survey looked into the effectiveness of CSO participation and the role of the World Bank in the process.
In general, there was agreement that the EITI process has resulted in enhanced CSO engagement in the EI sector, especially related to increased availability of information and government recognition of CSOs. However, there are still many concerns surrounding CSO participation. High among the concerns is the need to make EITI more meaningful at the local level, especially for EI-affected communities. In addition, it was strongly felt that the scope of EITI disclosure should be expanded to include: contracts, social payments/spending (including EI-community based payments), company- and project-level revenue.
Furthermore, respondents clearly indicated that once a country has endorsed EITI, the World Bank should play a role in making sure all parties comply with EITI requirements, such as holding governments and private sector clients accountable for civil society engagement. Moreover, the survey findings reinforce broader CSO community calls for the current IFC Policy Review to require contract disclosure of all extractive industry projects and for project-level disclosure of development outcomes.
BIC would like to thank all survey respondents for their time and invaluable input. In addition to the very brief summary above, the survey results provide many rich findings.
read the full report
Survey of civil society participation in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the role of the World Bank, by Heike Mainhardt-Gibbs, Bank Information Center, February 2010 (Acrobat pdf, 286 KB)
see also
BIC's page on the IFC Performance Standards review