The IX Meeting of the Civil Society Roundtable for Transparency in the Extractive Industries, which took place on November 22, was successfully concluded, with the objective of reviewing the main results of the Roundtable in 2016 and defining the main guidelines for 2017.
During the meeting, the main progress made by the Civil Society Roundtable and the participating organizations on transparency and access to information at the sub-national level was discussed. In addition to reviewing the progress made in the preparation of the second EITI Colombia report.
Those attending the meeting had the opportunity to learn about new content and initiatives such as: the virtual training course on the extractive industries value chain (EITI Colombia initiative), the commercialization of raw materials (EITI standard), and the identification of corruption risks in the granting of mining titles (Transparency for Colombia initiative).
Throughout 2016, the Civil Society Roundtable for Transparency in the Extractive Industries carried out several activities in order to obtain inputs that allow further progress in the EITI Colombia process. Among the main conclusions obtained were the following:
- Expand the number of organizations participating in the Roundtable: the workshops held to socialize the first EITI Colombia 2013 report, and identify the transparency and access to information needs of the communities, allowed the representative members to recognize the importance of adding more social and academic organizations to help strengthen this space of interaction for civil society.
- Extend the work of the Roundtable geographically: Although the Civil Society Roundtable for Transparency in the Extractive Industries has worked in more than 7 departments of the country, it is important to be able to extend the activities to other regions where there is a strong presence of the extractive industry.
- Sub-national work: Since the creation of the Mesa, the importance of decentralizing the initiative and creating a sub-national EITI has been discussed in the meetings of the National Tripartite Committee (CTN). Since the beginning of 2016, the Bureau has carried out a series of activities that have allowed us to delve deeper into the topic and have new elements to address it.
- Environmental transparency: The objective is to continue to deepen this topic in order to include it in future reports produced by the country.
- Use of rent: A recurring and disturbing issue for communities is the use of rent generated from extractive activities. This will be a priority item on the Mesa’s agenda for 2017.
