$350 million WB annual support to the Yemeni EITI

The World Bank office in Sana’a conducted a workshop with members of the civil society coalition working on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) on February 15. 

The purpose of the event was to take stock of the progress made by the Yemeni Branch of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (YEITI) since the October 2009 civil society event jointly organized by the World Bank and Revenue Watch Institute. Currently, YEITI is recruiting an independent auditor to conduct the first EITI audit. Once available and approved by the YEITI Council, the audit report will be publicly disclosed.

Yemen still must to go through an EITI validation. Validation has the objectives of evaluating EITI implementation and identifies opportunities to strengthen the process.  However, the initial deadline of March 9, 2010 will not be met. Yemen has requested an extension from the EITI Secretariat in Oslo, Norway.

The EITI works through a tri-partite coalition of governments, civil society and extractive industries companies to establish a standard for governments to increase transparency. The standards would mandate that governments disclose the amounts they receive from EI and for individual companies to publish their financial accounting.  The EITI aims to ensure that extractive industries such as mining, oil, and gas benefit all.

The workshop took place in Sana’a’s World Bank office, chaired by Dr. Mohammed Saleh Mokbel, Chairman of the YEITI Board and General Manager of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Oil and Minerals. Over 16 members of various civil society organizations attended the event including Yemeni Observatory of Human Rights, Human Rights Information and Training Center, the Economic Studies and Media Center and the Yemeni Legal Auditors Association. Sector Manager Paulo De Sa and Alexandra Pugachevsky, the Senior Energy Specialist and Mining/Task Manager from the World Bank’s Oil, Gas and Mining Policy Division in Washington, attended the meeting.

Yemen signed the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in March 2007. It is one of 33 countries worldwide that have joined the EITI, a global initiative, housed in Oslo, Norway. The country has US $350,000 available from the Multi-Donor Trust Fund administered by the World Bank to assist in the implementation of the EITI initiative.  The Trust Fund seeks to support the EITI reconciliation audit, YEITI Council operations and capacity building efforts.

“The World Bank is very interested in supporting the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and would directly support the Yemeni CSOs while enhancing partnership between government sectors and CSOs,” said Paulo De Sa.

Civil Society Participants thanked the Bank for involving them in its consultations and praised the Bank for the support they have offered to the initiative while enhancing CSOs ability to create a real partnership with the government.

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