EITI lauds Zambia for making progress in ensuring accountable management of oil, gas and minerals

The EITI Board has declared that Zambia has made meaningful progress in ensuring transparent management of the extractives sector. The decision highlighted how the EITI in Zambia had “provided valuable information along the value chain, identified gaps and opportunities for strengthening monitoring of production, and improved the public understanding of the revenues generated from oil, gas and mining activities. This work is critical to tackling corruption and addressing tax evasion.”

The Board also took note of recent efforts by Zambia EITI to place beneficial ownership transparency on the government’s agenda by seeking to understand how to include provisions related to beneficial ownership disclosure in ongoing reforms.

Continued government leadership important

In making this decision, the Board encouraged the Government of Zambia to increase its leadership of the EITI as a tool to help identify gaps in the way the sector is managed and help identify solutions together with industry and civil society. This can help strengthen the links between Zambia EITI and ongoing government reforms.

According to the Validation report, “it has taken some time for ZEITI to move from the production of reconciliation reports to informing and shaping the policy dialogue in Zambia’s mining sector. However, recent strategic discussions within ZEITI demonstrate the acknowledgement among stakeholders that there is a need to focus beyond the production and dissemination of EITI Reports to become a more active proponent of transparency and improved sector governance”.

Looking ahead

Congratulating the Government of Zambia on the result, Fredrik Reinfeldt, Chair of the EITI, said:

“I congratulate Zambia on its progress with the EITI.  The information is there.  I hope that all stakeholders can now make greater use of it to inform debate and drive reform.”

The Board found that Zambia had made satisfactory progress on most of the EITI Requirements. The areas that will need to be addressed by Zambia in the coming months related to clarity in the access to information on licensing, the government’s policy on contract transparency, production data, and following up on recommendations from EITI reporting. Click here to read more.