www.sarwatch.org

Launched in Johannesburg at the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative is a multilateral, multi-stakeholder programme that seeks to improve the governance of the extractive sector globally. It seeks to do this principally through the joint publication of the payments made by companies to countries and the concomitant publication of the receipts of received by the respective country fiscus. These payments and receipts are independently audited under the auspices of a multi-stakeholder committee. To date, some 30 countries have signed up as implementing countries to the EITI. Of the 30 implementing countries, 21 are African. The first and to date only EITI compliant country is Azerbaijan which accepted as fully compliant in February 2009. While EITI candidate countries in Africa include Nigeria, the DRC, Guinea and Ghana, South Africa has not yet joined the EITI, nor has the government indicated an inclination or intention to do so. By contrast, a number of major South African corporations are supportive of the EITI.