The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a Norwegian-based organization that seeks to establish a global standard for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources.

Validation serves to assess performance towards meeting the EITI Standard and promote dialogue and learning at the country level.

The previous chairs have been Fredrik Reinfeldt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, Clare Short (2011-2016), former UK Secretary of State for International Development and Peter Eigen (2009-2011).

[1] The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) was first launched in September 2002 by the then UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg,[2] following years of academic debate, as well as lobbying by civil societies and companies, on the management of government revenues from the extractive industries.

NGOs such as Global Witness and “Publish What You Pay”, as well as companies such as BP pushed the UK government to working towards an international transparency norm.

The 140 delegates[4] from government, companies and civil society agreed on twelve principles[5] to increase transparency over payments and revenues in the extractive sector.

These set out the minimum requirements for transparency in the management of resources in the oil, gas and mining sectors, laying the foundation for a rule-based organisation.

This conference also established an international advisory group (IAG) under the Chairmanship of Peter Eigen to further guide the work of how the EITI is to be set up and function.

The report issued in June 2006 by the international advisory group recommended the establishment of a multi-stakeholder board and an independent secretariat, and these were set in place at the third EITI conference held in Oslo, Norway on 11 October 2006.

[14] These steps relate to a clear commitment of the government, company and civil society engagement, the establishment of a multi-stakeholder group and agreement on a work plan, which sets out what the country wants to achieve within a certain time frame.

It is also clear that the EITI process is one of the only functioning global mechanisms to inform and channel debate in resource-rich countries in a way that includes all stakeholders.

In Peru, EITI Reports have highlighted that, only about 15% of revenues from the mining and hydrocarbon sector has been used for developmental spending, such as infrastructure or economic diversification.

EITI Reports make recommendations aimed at addressing weaknesses in government systems and improving extractive sector management.

[22][23] As of January 2021[update], 68 oil, gas and mining companies, financial institutions and commodity traders support the EITI.

[27] The EITI has been seen as insufficient to bring full transparency to payments in the extractive industries, since it does not cover countries active in commodity trading.

[34] These governments can erode the EITI rules because they can decide autonomously on the threshold size of payments and company operations that do not need to be published.