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?