DAR ES SALAAM: THE global Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) has acknowledged Tanzania’s commitment and efforts by engaging active participation of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in protecting the country’s resources.
EITI Global Independent Board Chair, Ms Hellen Clark, also lauded CSOs, especially those which are engaged in the extractive sector for supporting the government initiatives in protection of resources.
She said EITI has been working closely with Tanzania since 2009, saying that it has been a long, real journey with remarkable milestones.
Ms Clark made the remarks yesterday during her meeting with local CSOs that are engaged in the extractive sector.
The meeting aimed to discuss EITI issues, including how best artisanal and small-scale miners (ASMs), globally, would benefit from extractive sector.
The discussion also involved climate change and gender issues, as well as how best to mitigate their impacts.
The meeting was convened by HakiRasilimali, with Ms Clark stressing that: “With this magic triangle for civil society, industries and government, issues have been addressed to ensure countries achieve optimal benefits.
“A credible result was obtained from the 2023 validation report, in which Tanzania scored moderately,” she said.
She further affirmed that EITI’s recent standards, recognised the energy transition away from fossil fuels, saying Tanzania enjoys vast extractive resources, including oil and gas, traditional minerals, and critical and strategic minerals.
However, she added, despite having legislation for contract disclosure requirements and a beneficial ownership register under relevant authority – Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) but the two of them are yet to be in the public domain.
“This is the issue CSOs should look at and champion. Disclosure will help in curbing illicit financial flows, including transfer and pricing, that many jurisdictions are struggling with,” she recommended.
It was further noted that with the 2023 EITI standard, there is an introduction of the project cost disclosure requirement, which includes operational cost and capital expenditure.
Since the capacity is limited, the EITI international secretariat is open to supporting CSOs in building the required capacity to analyse this kind of data and with comparison cases.
HakiRasilimali Executive Director, Mr Adam Anthony, highlighted the potential utilisation of the printed statistics sourced from the TEITI report for 2020/21, whose part of statistics show a huge gender gap in the extractive industry in Tanzania.
“We all agree that women are few in number just by looking at graphs which are not even named, so this is how the sector looks like in the country,” he said.
