Oby: EITI at the Crossroads

Obiageli Ezekwesili, is one of Africa's great women. Vice President for Africa of the World Bank and formerly Nigeria's Minister for Solid Minerals Development and Chairperson of Nigeria's EITI , she is a strong-willed visionary who played a crucial role in the establishment of EITI when she represented Nigeria on the International Advisory Group and continues to support it from within the Bank.

So when she appeared somewhat unexpectedly at the EITI board it was a true pleasure. What she had to say was aimed to provoke thought in this select audience. As she addressed the national coordinators from some 25 EITI candidate countries she asked "What comes after validation?" While the EITI Rules are clear that validation gives a five-year certification of compliance, the question looms just over the horizon for 2010, when a number of candidate countries are likely to get the seal of approval.

Don't be fooled by her training as an accountant: Obi thinks on the grand scale and asks the larger questions of this experiment in transparency that is still proving itself, even as it gathers momentum. To her way of thinking the process of validation shouldn't be just a technocratic, bureaucratic exercise, culminating in a meeting with some reports to go unread on someone's bookshelf.

Oby sees EITI as potentially transformative, a trigger for change, and validation being a point to take the measure of what will have been achieved, by that measure of progress. EITI should be a way of showing how the private sector will have become an engine for change, how the private sector privileges quality environments where transparency provides a more stable attractive climate attracting foreign investment. For citizens EITI will show that opacity undermines the management and governance of the sectors that dominate their lives, and that they deserve and will get a different approach from their leaders and will have created the ability to put the politicians' old behavior on the table.

EITI is at the crossroads, looking at validation and what lies beyond. Without seeing EITI within the larger context, absent the ability to grow EITI and use its collateral benefits for broader change, it could end up as something of interesting for a small group of donors, the World Bank, government officials and an initiated group of civil society. Without connecting EITI to this broader agenda, we deprive it of its full potential and impact. What do we need to do before and after validation to achieve the goals consistent with Oby's ambitious vision?

The White House is with Us

It was a long day of not the most scintillating stuff, board and committee discussions and the like, but it finished on a high note. At the World Bank's EITI reception Obama adviser Michael Froman stopped by to offer remarks. Froman is, of course, deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, serving jointly at the National Security Council and the National Economic Council. He was seen at the President's side at the London G20 Summit, responsibility for which is among his important roles. So his coming by to welcome EITI was a big deal. Froman recalled that among President Obama's very first official acts he issued an executive order directing that "government should be transparent...government should be participatory...and government should be collaborative" and that every move the administration makes is thought through from this perspective. Among the key words of encouragement were "the Obama Administration strongly supports EITI" and notes its unique achievement of bringing together public sector, private sector and the nonprofit sector. Froman noted that transparency is good for companies good for countries, and good for investors. He called out Azerbaijan for being first through the validation process and also hailed Steve Gallogly of the US Department of State for his service to the EITI board. Froman was later seen mingling with guests from Liberia, Azerbaijan, and the Publish What You Pay US gang, Sarah Pray, Ian Gary, and Corinna Gilfillan. EITI, Revenue Watch and its friends were buoyed by the high-level show of support. Where do we go from here?

Down the tubes: Following Pipeline Revenues

A quick post on transit revenues, before the EITI board meeting starts: Revenue Watch and EITI are jointly hosting a workshop today on how and whether we include transit fees for piping or shipping hydrocarbon resources in the framework of EITI, which has quickly become the global standard for extractive revenue disclosure. In particular we will be looking at the European case mostly, of gas and oil that comes from the Caspian and Russia going through Ukraine and Bulgaria(or the Caucasus and Turkey) It's a tricky business for a number of reasons and the European case is in a way anomalous as the pipeline is owned by the consumers rather than by the producers as is normally the case. Then there is the murky nature of the midstream / downstream trade which in a way is even more riddled with corruption and of a pettier more brutal type than the upstream. If you haven't read it yet, do take a look at Global Witness' 2006 report It's a Gas Funny Business in the Turkmen-Ukraine Gas Trade and if you want a more technical view read Revenue Watch's Expanding the EITI Agenda to Transportation of Hydrocarbon Resources. Either way, European energy security and the great cause of good governance mean that this issue is not going away anytime soon.

It’s that time again. EITI “week” in Washington, DC.

Well, it’s been a while since I posted but I wanted my loyal readership to know what I have been up to since Doha. In March I spent a few days in Europe and took the opportunity to meet some of the new board members of the EITI. While in London Radhika Sarin the international coordinator of Publish What You Pay, Diarmid O’Sullivan and I visited with Tony Hodge who is President of the ICMM, the International Council on Mining and Metals. I also saw Stuart Brooks of Chevron along with my fellow PWYP colleagues Joe Williams as well as Diarmid from Global Witness. We got a chance with both of them to catch up on our various perspectives on the issues the new board of EITI will face. We also talked about about where EITI is heading – big picture, blue sky conversations, and also some of the nitty gritty of the board’s work. In Berlin I was hosted by Peter Eigen, Chairman of the Board of EITI, and he pulled together a half-day of roundtable meetings with German ministries and German NGOs. Unfortunately Ulla Mykota, the German EITI board member, wasn’t able to be there from Bonn, but I look forward to seeing her next week. Germany is so important for EITI and is also playing practically the leading role within the European Union in shaping relations with countries to the East, including the former Soviet states.



In fact a German company, RWE, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk, just recently signed an MOU with the government of Turkmenistan for offshore gas exploration, the Oil and Gas Journal reports. Given RWE’s role in Nabucco it would also be good to hear about RWE supporting EITI. In Brussels I had an espresso with EITI Board member Henk Mahieu, General Counsellor, Dept. of Economic Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I hadn’t appreciated the extent to which Belgium is involved with natural gas and they have some major terminals for LNG as well.




Back home in the US I traveled to Houston, Texas, with Sarah Pray and Ian Gary (Oxfam) of the Publish What You Pay US campaign, to meet with ExxonMobil Production CEO Rich Kruger and John Kelley (another colleague from the EITI board). We then spent a couple of hours with Marathon, after a break for some pretty good Texas barbecue. The main item on the menu however with ExxonMobil and Marathon is the Extractive Industries Transparency Disclosure Act. PWYP US’ Open the Books campaign is making good progress and we are trying to communicate our respective positions and get a bit closer as the bill moves towards being reintroduced in the US Senate and the House with bipartisan support, which may be soon.

Looking ahead to the EITI week we have a number of interesting developments. As validation gets underway in earnest all of the National Coordinators will be in Washington getting their operations in high gear.

Revenue Watch will hold its board and advisory board meetings looking at everything from the natural resource charter, the commodities boom and the impact on extractives transparency, unpacking "package deals" and a hot new index to track transparency in resource rich countries. RWI is also holding a workshop on how transit revenues could be included into the framework of EITI based on a recent report looking at Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia.

The EITI is going to look at progress of the now more than two dozen countries seeking to get validated as EITI compliant. Some are moving swiftly, like Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, with Cameroon, Kazkahstan, Timor-Leste and Mongolia also doing well. There is reason for concern about other countries experiencing political or governance disruptions. If you look at the list of the countries you can more or less figure this out on your own but Publish What you Pay and Revenue Watch are also looking at the situation and trying to figure out what can be done to help the process along. Meanwhile more countries are still trying to get into EITI, proof that our brand is strong: Albania, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Zambia and lately Afghanistan are all seeking candidacy. It will be a busy week.