EITI London Conference, March 2005

Summary

Some 300 delegates attended the second international conference on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) that took place in London on 17 March 2005. This conference was a follow up to the previous Lancaster House Conference on 17 June 2003. It was a successful event, with high-level participation from a broad range of stakeholders.

The Conference was an opportunity to take stock of the progress in implementation so far. The Conference was also a chance to maintain the momentum behind the Initiative, and to consolidate and strengthen the international partnership of government, industry and civil society supporting EITI. Looking forward, the Conference agreed a set of criteria and guidelines for implementing countries and companies, and endorsed the EITI Source book as guidance for countries and companies interested in supporting the initiative. The United Kingdom also announced the formation of an International Advisory Group, which will consider approaches to the future management of international EITI support, incentives for implementation, and a suitable process for evaluating implementation.

A number of countries used the conference as an opportunity to announce their plans to implement EITI. The Governments of Niger and Cameroon announced that they would now begin implementation of the Initiative. The Governments of Equatorial Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo also announced their commitment to the EITI Principles and will now consider how to move to full implementation. and several countries and international organisations including the United Kingdom, France, Norway, the United States of America, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development agreed to increase financial and/or technical support for EITI.

• Agenda, speakers, and transcripts
• Conference delegates and written statements

Statement of Outcomes

The Statement of Outcomes (English, Français, Portuguese, Pусский, Español) is the principal document arising from the 2005 Conference. It has been carefully drafted with the involvement of a wide group of stakeholders. The Statement describes the purpose of EITI, the outcomes from the Conference, reaffirms the EITI Principles, introduces the EITI Criteria, and indicates the future developments of EITI over the next year and the work that this entails. It was agreed by all those attending the Conference who wished to be recorded as Participants.

EITI Source book

The set of EITI criteria and guidelines agreed at the Conference are supported by illustrative guidance in the EITI Source book (عربي, 中文, Français, Portuguese, Pусский, Español). The Source book draws on the experiences gathered during the EITI pilot phase, and is intended to assist countries wishing to implement initiative and companies and other stakeholder wishing to support implementation.