Harry Li, MAAPPS // Mar 11, 2015
Having discovered the news that the team will not have the chance to present our findings in Mongolia this year, the team felt a moment of pause and bewilderment, but soon back on track.
For the first half of term, each member picked an EITI country to investigate its level of sub-national reporting. The end goal is combine useful data and draw patterns in which potentially could be beneficial in promoting Mongolia’s sub-national reporting. For the last two weeks, the major discussions were on how to analyze the collective findings so that we can put it into a presentation for the EITI Mongolia coordinator. We have decided to categorize countries in to the following factors:
- Regional governance VS. Federal governance
- Taxes collected federally VS. Taxes collected federal and regionally
- Funding through government VS. Funding through companies
- Evidence of sub-national initiatives
- Oil dominant VS. Mining dominant
- Level of artisanal and small-scale mining(ASM)
- Population density
- GDP percentage of extractive sector
- Conflict VS. Stable zone
So far, 8 out of 13(including Mongolia) countries has sub-national reporting legislation enabled. 5 out of 13 has no sub-national initiatives, 4 has started discussions and 4 countries have sub-national initiatives implemented. Another interesting pattern we found was that oil dominant countries are less likely to embrace sub-national reporting than mining dominant countries.
Thanks to Christina’s idea, the team is brainstorming on the most effective ways to engage Mongolian citizens in learning about the importance of sub-national reporting. Interestingly, we thought of posters in gas stations, cooperation with Mongolian banks, citizen hall engagement and more.
On March 9, we were honored to be joined by Canada’s second resident Ambassador in Mongolia, Mr.Gregory Goldhawk. He provided us with great insights about Mongolia and we discussed our project with him. Mr.Goldhawk believes that what we are doing is new, innovative and valuable. We may not have everything figured out yet, but every great world initiative starts somewhere. I, too, believe in this project.