About EITI
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is the global standard to promote the open and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources. Guided by the belief that a country’s natural resources belong to its citizens, the EITI has established a global standard to promote the open and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources.
The EITI standards requires the disclosure of information along the extractive industry value chain from the point of extraction, to how revenues make their way through the government, and how they benefit the public. It is implemented in 55 countries through a multi-stakeholder group set up that includes representatives of government, companies and civil society.
Lebanon Updates
On January 25, 2017, Saad Hariri, back then Lebanon’s prime minister, announced Lebanon’s intention to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) with the aim to enhance transparency and accountability in Lebanon’s Petroleum sector.
In order to be accepted as an EITI implementing country, Lebanon must establish a multi-stakeholder group formed by representatives from the government, companies and civil society. This MSG will oversee the EITI process/implementation in Lebanon. An annual report that includes relevant data about the oil and gas sector in Lebanon will need to be produced. The EITI report will disclose audited information related to a range of issues from information on licenses, beneficial ownership, contracts, social payments, budget, production and revenue data. The EITI 2019 Standard details the type of data and information that is expected to be found in the EITI reports.
In July 2019, Lebanon was offered a seat at the international EITI board, when LOGI was elected to represent civil society at large. This is the first time that civil society from MENA is represented at the international EITI board.
At the EITI 2019 global conference, Lebanon renewed its commitment to implementing EITI and declared its intention to apply beneficial ownership at the subcontracted level, making it among the very few countries world-wide that adopts this level of Beneficial Ownership disclosure. In September 2020, the government published the names and beneficial owners of all companies subcontracted for the drilling of Lebanon’s first offshore well.
As per sign up steps and requirement 1.3(a): “Civil society must be fully, actively and effectively engaged in the EITI process.”
Subsequently, the Coalition for Energy Governance-PWYP Lebanon has set up the constituency guidelines to start implementing the MSG elections in order to ensure an inclusive and participatory representation for the Lebanese civil society on the MSG.
The Constituency Guidelines (CG) represent how Lebanese civil society wished to be represented on the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG). The current CG was drafted and adopted by the CEG. This will be followed by the generation of metrics resulting from the outreach activities that will be done. Furthermore, the CG highlights the membership criteria, the nomination criteria, and governing principles in general.