will Azerbaijan be validated at Doha?

The flight from JFK to Doha was smooth and I have had hours and hours to read all the briefing documents for the EITI board meetings here. A big question awaiting us in Doha is the first validation of any country as part of the process. It's absolutely critical that there be a legitimate and credible process and that EITI keeps it moving forward. There are 24 candidate countries now. But someone has to go first. That would be Azerbaijan. There have been many discussions about their validation about whether or not there is a real multistakeholder group. I am remembering now that we got started partnering with Azerbaijani civil society partners quite a number of years ago, with Sabit Bagirov, Ingilab Ahmedov, Galib Efendiyev; then Ilham Aliyev, still not president of Azerbaijan, but with the support of his father, the late Heydar Aliyev, came to London and announced support. So now, it looks like they will be the first. If they are, will they stay true to the process and empanel a permanent Multistakeholder group and continue to publish regular reports? I hope so. And I hope they don't just rest on their laurels but deepen EITI in their own country. It will make for a good precedent; and also a better celebration in Baku later this year.