The Civil Society Roundtable for Transparency in the Extractive Industries has been invited on two occasions by civil society organizations from Honduras and Guatemala to share their experience of civil society advocacy in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) process.
In March, Acción Ciudadana and Asociación Servicios a Programas de Desarrollo e Investigación ASO-SEPRODI held the seminar “Civil Society and Extractive Industries in Guatemala”, in which new international transparency standards in the extractive industries were socialized; the process of preparing an alternative report to the EITI initiative was discussed; and Andrés Hernández, Director of the Citizenship Area of Transparencia por Colombia shared the activities that the Civil Society Roundtable has been carrying out in the EITI Colombia process.
The second meeting was held on May 27 with the Federation of Non-Governmental Organizations for the Development of Honduras-FOPRIDEH. The different organizations that are part of FOPRIDEH expressed their interest in learning about the civil society process in EITI Colombia, in order to receive feedback from other experiences. During the two sessions, topics such as the importance of EITI in Colombia for civil society, the formation of the Civil Society Roundtable and its purpose, EITI Colombia’s action plan, and the balance of the main achievements, challenges and good practices of EITI Colombia were discussed.
For the Civil Society Roundtable it is essential to share its experience with other countries to learn about the regional vision and create an alliance with civil society organizations in order to generate a proactive dialogue on extractive industry issues. For this work, the Bureau has received financial support from Cordaid.
