Jon Brasnett, MAAPPS // Mar 8, 2015
After researching the case of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and its own implementation of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) standards, I felt discouraged about the legitimacy of this initiative and its ability to bring transparency. Mauritania is a semi-presidential republic governed by a military leader who was “democratically” re-elected after initially coming to power through a coup d’état. It is a country characterized by poverty and inequality, where 40% of citizens live in conditions of extreme poverty (UN HDR) and approximately 10-20% of citizens live under conditions of slavery (CNN). Thus, I came to doubt the capacity of EITI reports to mobilize an educated civil society to lobby government institutions or extractive industries for increased transparency or efficient redistribution of resource wealth to the communities from where the resources were extracted. Instead, I got the impression that achieving compliant status in EITI was a way for the Mauritanian government to legitimize its rule by demonstrating a desire to be more transparent, for the extractive industries to show that they are making and recording their payments, and for the international EITI community to perceive Mauritania as a country that complies with international norms and encourages citizens to voice their opinions and interests. In a country where such large percentages of the citizenry live in poverty and suffer from repression, it is difficult to believe that EITI reports mobilize any civil society opposition to or regulation of the resource extraction industry.
On the other hand, upon looking into the case of Mongolia, my optimism has been restored with regards to the importance of EITI implementation. As a newly established democracy, it is important to publish all natural resource revenue information so that the citizenry (particularly civil society organizations) can hold the government accountable if this revenue happens to disappear and is never invested into the provision of social services. Mining makes up approximately 20% of Mongolia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a number which continues to grow year after year. As a result, poverty levels are rapidly decreasing, down more than 11% just between 2010 and 2012 (European Commission MIP for Mongolia, 2014-2020). Even though EITI did not mention Mongolia as one of the countries in which subnational reporting might be relevant, it is difficult to ignore the fact that Mongolia would be a perfect pilot for such a project. This is owing to the fact that Mongolia has a literacy rate of 100%, a growing number of civil society organizations and NGOs, as well as an increasingly democratic identity among its citizenry. Considering the fact that many provinces (aimags) and far more districts (sums) have been transformed due to the resource extraction taking place there, these aimags and sums deserve the opportunity to see exactly how much wealth is being extracted from their land and in turn, to demand greater provision of important social services (like schools, hospitals, transit, etc.) to increase their quality of life and level of development. I strongly believe that Mongolia has the potential to lead the way in the implementation of subnational reporting in the EITI, and that this might truly benefit its citizens.