The EITI’s origins Becoming a multi-stakeholder organisation In the late 1990s, extractives governance increasingly became a matter of public interest, with growing research pointing to the link between the mismanagement of oil, gas and mining resources and increased poverty, conflict and corruption. Stakeholders identified transparency and public dialogue as a crucial starting point for remedying this “resource curse”, and citizens and civil society organisations began calling on companies to disclose their payments to governments. A common vision of transparency In response to campaigns by civil society organisations, the UK government recognised the potential to create an initiative based on the principle of mutual transparency between governments and companies, to shed light on their transactions related to oil, gas and mining activities. In June 2003, it convened a meeting in London of 140 representatives from governments, companies, international organisations, civil society groups and investors, who agreed that a reporting standard should be developed. This event marked the formation of the EITI as a multi-stakeholder organisation, and established its vision and mission through the creation of the EITI Principles. EITI Principles What is now known as the EITI evolved from the first statement of the EITI Principles agreed at the Lancaster House Conference in June 2003. These 12 principles are the cornerstone of the EITI and establish the founding beliefs and aims for the organisation. Building momentum In July 2005, the EITI established the International Advisory Group (IAG), a diverse group of stakeholders who provided recommendations on the future of the organisation. This led to the creation of the international EITI Board, which convened its inaugural meeting in New York in December 2006. The IAG also proposed to introduce an assessment mechanism called Validation, which aimed to guarantee comparability and provide recommendations for the implementation of EITI requirements across countries. From the outset, multi-stakeholder governance involving governments, companies and civil society organisations was an integral part of this process. By September 2006, more than 20 resource-rich countries– including Azerbaijan, Ghana, Nigeria, Norway and Peru– had committed to implementing the EITI. Azerbaijan and Nigeria had begun regularly reporting their extractive industry revenues and payments, while Gabon, Guinea and the Kyrgyz Republic had produced EITI Reports. Nigeria was also the first country to adopt national legislation requiring the implementation of the EITI in May 2007. By 2009, 30 countries were implementing the EITI, reporting a total of USD 200 billion in extractive sector revenues. The UK’s Department for International Development played an integral role in developing the reporting framework and institutional structure for the EITI. In 2007, the Government of Norway offered to host the new EITI International Secretariat in Oslo, which served to coordinate the management and implementation of the EITI. Growing international support In its early years, the EITI focused on publication of extractive payments by companies to governments, revenues received by governments from companies and their reconciliation. The initiative saw support from intergovernmental and multilateral organisations, and in 2004 the World Bank disbursed nearly USD 60 million in technical and financial assistance to EITI programmes around the world. By 2013, the EITI had become a global movement, with various international institutions routinely citing their association with the EITI to reinforce their commitment to good governance. The first EITI Standard was adopted at the sixth EITI Global Conference in Sydney, Australia. The EITI’s reporting requirements were further adopted in various laws and policies worldwide, including in the European Union, Liberia, Nigeria and the United States, as well as in the International Finance Corporation’s standards for extractive projects. Today, nearly 60 countries implement the EITI Standard, which over the past two decades has become the global benchmark for transparency in oil, gas and mining. 8 EITI Anniversary Report