- In addition, head of EITI´s international secretariat visited Lima.
Lima, 31 July 2017.– The next national reconciliation study of the extractive industries transparency initiative (EITI) in Peru will for the first time contain environmental information in the contextual part of the document. This is what Epifanio Baca of Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana and alternate civil society representative in the national EITI Commission Peru announced during the event «Bringing us closer to the EITI» on 20 July.
César Gamboa, executive director of Derecho, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (DAR for its acronym in Spanish) and alternate civil society member in the international EITI Board, indicated that the dissemination of social and environmental information in the EITI reports is of great urgency in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Finally, the agreement to include «information on social and environmental aspects and costs for the companies considering regulation and official data»[1] in the contextual part of the next conciliation study «is a step forward following the example of Colombia and Mexico, who while still being candidate countries of EITI, already incorporate this information», according to Vanessa Cueto of DAR and lead civil society representative at the National EITI Commission Peru.
Jonas Moberg met with national civil society
Jonas Moberg, head of EITI´s international secretariat, visited our country and, on 20 July, met with the members of the National EITI Commission Peru to evaluate the next steps for the implementation of the recommendations after approving its second validation process. The next day, he spoke with Peruvian civil society and industry representatives in the National EITI Commission Peru and the EITI Commission in Arequipa.
The civil society group in EITI, led by DAR and Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana are working towards the articulation of key indicators for socio-environmental standards in EITI. These could be complemented by a Reference Guide containing information on countries that are moving towards an environmental EITI and on how they are doing it. This was the commitment made by the EITI International Secretariat last March, in Bogotá, during the 36th meeting of the EITI International Board.
These meetings were, therefore, an opportunity to directly express civil society expectations for EITI and, at the same time, to express their needs for socio-environmental transparency in the extractive industries. Cesar Gamboa requested EITI International Secretariat to give practical form to their commitment made in Bogota at the next meeting of the International Board in Manila hereby facilitating the incorporation of socio-environmental information in the reports of EITI Member States.
The meeting between the EITI International Secretariat and national civil society took place on 21 July in the Golden Sun Hotel, Miraflores and had the following discussion themes: gender-based approach, indigenous participation and environmental transparency in the extractive industries.