AZERBAIJAN: The Path to EITI Validation
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When Azerbaijan chose to be the first country to undergo the EITI validation process, it seized the opportunity to lead in global EITI implementation, but it also entered uncharted territory among its EITI peers.
In a three-day workshop organized by Revenue Watch in Baku in December, civil society groups and all members of Azerbaijan's EITI working group met to gain a more thorough understanding of the entire validation process, its purpose, the detailed set of indicators used, and the roles of all parties in EITI implementation more broadly. This meeting on validation took place against a backdrop of severe time constraints due to Azerbaijan's ambitious schedule to become the first candidate to face formal validation at the upcoming EITI Board meeting in February 2008.
RWI worked with a coalition of civil society groups worked to coordinate expert input on the validation process and to bring multiple voices to the assessment of Azerbaijan’s EITI progress. A range of self-assessment exercises allowed participants to understand the validation process in practical terms, to gauge where Azerbaijan needed to improve its performance in order to qualify as a compliant country, and to clarify key EITI fundamentals such as a Multi-Stakeholder Working Group and a formal EITI workplan.
Indeed one key area of concern for civil society in Azerbaijan has been the need to establish a permanent multi-stakeholder working group with a balance of oversight from all sectors, government, civil society and the private sector.
This validation meeting allowed civil society to share a unified message of concern with other stakeholders prior to the formal process before the EITI Board. As a result of this and other civil society efforts, the government of Azerbaijan ultimately agreed to establish a permanent multi-stakeholder working group and create an EITI workplan, an agreement made just prior to its official EITI validation.
Now that Azerbaijan is the world's first resource rich nation to receive EITI "Compliant" status, Revenue Watch is hopeful that the establishment of the permanent multi-stakeholder working group will ensure continued engagement and progress on EITI in the country.
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