Is Transparency Enough? An Examination of the Effect of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) on Accountability, Corruption and Trust in Zambia
Abstract
The Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) is the leading global transparency
standard for the extractive industry. It aims to improve governance standards in the
extractive industry by providing a public platform for information sharing and multi-stakeholder dialogue. However, the success of the initiative has been brought into question
by numerous scholars. This paper aims to shed new light on this work by presenting a
unique analytical framework. The framework hypothesises that improved transparency,
through the EITI, can lead to improved extractive industry governance: increased
accountability, reduced corruption and increased trust. However, this improvement of
governance can only take place when combined with three scope conditions: 1) transparency
condition, 2) publicity condition, and 3) accountability condition. The paper applies this
framework to the single case study of Zambia, and finds that the EITI has failed to
meaningfully improve these three governance outcomes in the extractive industry in Zambia.
The paper argues that the reason for this is that none of the three necessary scope
conditions are sufficiently present. The paper advocates for policymakers to support the
growth of these three conditions in contexts of poor extractive industry governance, to ensure
transparency standards have meaningful impact.
Citation
East, S. (2023) 'Is Transparency Enough? An Examination of the Effect of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) on Accountability, Corruption and Trust in Zambia', ICTD Working Paper 175, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI: 10.19088/ICTD.2023.055DOI
10.19088/ICTD.2023.055Is part of series
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Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO)Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation