Sierra Leone Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (SLEITI) Multi-Stakeholder Group on Thursday, February 17, 2022 reviewed the EITI validation templates on transparency, stakeholders engagement, outcomes and impact.
The validation, which was held at the LACS Villa, Cantonment Road in Freetown, attracted policymakers, civil society activists including journalists, and representatives of mining companies.
The Minister of State, Office of the Vice President, Francess Alghalie said that Sierra Leone has commenced its validation preparedness through several approaches, including stakeholder engagement, data collection and documentation, supporting reforms and adhering to the provisions in the 2019 EITI standards. She said that government takes EITI process seriously and commended the President Julius Maada Bio and Vice President Dr Juldeh Jalloh for providing the resources for the EITI process.
She said that the validation was to look at what has been done and what could be added into the templates. She commended the SLEITI secretariat and the MSG for their commitment to process and work done so far.
The Head of Administration and Finance, SLEITI Secretariat, Mrs Annie Lansana said that the revalidation is part of the process to prepare Sierra Leone for the validation on adhering to the provisions in the 2019 EITI standards.
She said that a lot of quality work have been done by the Secretariat. She said that in February this year a pre-workshop was held in Bo city and a committee was set up to fill in the validation templates.
Mrs Lansana said in 2018 Sierra Leone was assessed on the 2016 standards and the country made ‘meaningful progress’. He said that this year the country will be assessed on the 2019 standards, and they are hopeful that the country will get high scores.
Representative of the Chamber of Mines, Isaac Coker said that the Chamber would continue to support MSG activities in Sierra Leone.
National Coordinator of SLEITI, Mohamed B. Koroma said that Sierra Leone will be validated for the period June 2019 to March 31, 2022.
He said that a country’s overall assessment in validation will consider three components – transparency, stakeholder engagement and outcomes and impact. He added that each EITI requirement will be assessed under one of the three components.
The EITI holds all implementing countries to the same global standard. Through Validation, the EITI’s quality assurance mechanism, implementing countries are assessed on their ability to meet the provisions of the EITI Standard.
Validation promotes dialogue and learning at a country level. It provides countries with an opportunity to communicate progress and to identify and address challenges in EITI implementation. Validation captures stakeholder views and allows countries to highlight their perspectives on the effectiveness and sustainability of EITI implementation.
By Sallieu S. Kanu