The Board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) on Friday, April 1, 2022, effectively commences Sierra Leone’s Validation against the 2019 EITI Standard.
In accordance with the new validation model adopted by the EITI Board, the process will assess whether EITI implementation in Sierra Leone is in line with the provisions of the EITI Standard; and whether the process is contributing to Government reforms in the extractive sector.
Considering the importance attached to EITI implementation, the Multi-stakeholder Group (MSG) of the Sierra Leone Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (SLEITI) led by the Minister of State – Office of the Vice President, Francess Piagie Alghali, on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, successfully submitted the necessary data and documentation demonstrating progress towards meeting the EITI Requirements to the EITI Board. The main documents submitted were the EITI Board Templates on “Stakeholder engagement, Transparency, and Outcomes and Impacts”- all of which summarized the Government and the MSG approaches to implementing Requirements 1-7 of the EITI Standard.
As part of the procedure to strengthen public consultations, the Validation team will review the templates submitted by the MSG, the overall Validation dossier, and hold bilateral virtual meetings with stakeholders involved in the governance of the extractive sector. This will also help generate feedback from experts regarding MSG Governance, legal reforms and institutional frameworks of the sector, production and export, license allocation process, revenue collection and management, and other sector related issues bordering on transparency and accountability.
Like all other EITI Validations, the “outcome is a numerical score from zero to 100, with a corresponding indicator ranging from “low to very high”. This approach maintains the rigour of the Validation process while accommodating the diverse challenges and priorities of the implementing country.
The MSG was actively involved in the processes leading up to the commencement of Validation – ensuring that, the necessary validation dossier were collated and submitted to the EITI International Board well in time. Following the submission of these documents on 30th March, members of the MSG were delighted and expressed optimism for a rewarding outcome. The EITI Board decision on Sierra Leone’s Validation is expected to be released in July 2022.