The Consensus Building Institute to facilitate independent review of civil society constituency guidelines in the EITI

Civil society representatives on the international Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a multi-stakeholder initiative founded in 2002 to foster greater transparency in the extractive sector, are pleased to announce their collaboration with the Consensus Building Institute over the coming six months to undertake an independent review of the EITI civil society constituency guidelines.

Ahead of the next nominations for its 2019-2022 term, the EITI Board, through its Governance Committee, has requested all of its three constituencies to reassess their guidelines, in order to strengthen existing procedures. The civil society members on the International EITI Board have asked a third party – the Consensus Building Institute – to facilitate this process to ensure that it is as robust and independent as possible. The Consensus Building Institute brings an unparalleled track record in brokering agreements, facilitating collaboration and conducting mediation. It is also able to build on its previous experience with the EITI.

To review the existing EITI civil society guidelines and make recommendations on how to improve them, the Consensus Building Institute will take a consultative approach. This includes working closely with an independent advisory panel, whose members bring expertise on multi-stakeholder initiatives and civil society engagement. The Institute will be responsible for setting up the panel and will communicate its membership in January 2018. It will also reach out to a number of stakeholders within and outside the civil society constituency, in a series of confidential semi-structured interviews, to draw on a wide range of opinions and recommendations.

The civil society constituency expects to endorse its new guidelines by July 2018. These guidelines will also define how civil society nominates its representatives for the international Board for the 2019-2022 term.

Background:

• The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) a global standard to promote the open and accountable management of extractive resource. It is designed to improve accountability and public trust for the revenues paid and received for a country’s oil, gas and mineral resources through the disclosure of relevant information.
• The EITI established an unprecedented governance approach in the sector whereby three constituencies – government, companies and civil society – have equal weight in making decisions.
• Each constituency is self-governed and therefore responsible for defining its own internal rules and procedures, including the nomination process and criteria to select its representatives to serve on the EITI Board, in line with agreed, shared principles. The international EITI Board is made up of 21 members from implementing countries, supporting countries, civil society organisations, industry and institutional investors.
• As the largest global coalition of civil society organisations working to promote the good governance of natural resources, Publish What You Pay (PWYP) was tasked in 2005 to develop, regularly review and implement the constituency guidelines for civil society on the EITI Board. As part of this role, PWYP has been responsible for coordinating the nominations process for the 10 civil society EITI Board seats to date.
• For more information on the Consensus Building Institute please visit CBI’s website at www.cbuilding.org; for any question or suggestions, please contact Michele Ferenz, CBI Senior Mediator at [email protected]