UK supports progress of EITI in Honduras
Andrew Tate, Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy in Guatemala City, visited Honduras to launch the UK funded workshop “Extractive Industries in Latin America”.
EITI workshop
The training was aimed at supporting Honduras’ efforts to become a fully compliant country of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
The workshop, also organised by the General Secretary of Coordination of the Honduran Government and the Technical Secretariat of EITI in Honduras, seeks to learn from successful experiences from fully compliant countries of the initiative, such as Guatemala and Peru. The event also provides an opportunity to listen to other stakeholders, such as the extractive industry companies and civil society organizations, on how to steer and govern the EITI process.
EITI is a global standard ensuring transparency of payments from natural resources. It is a voluntary initiative, implemented by countries whose governments sign up for companies to publish what they pay for oil, gas and mining; to disclose what the authorities receive from oil, gas and mining; and to make sure these figures are reconciled by an independent administrator.
The EITI was announced in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Although Honduras’ extractive sector is small, there has been an increased interest in expanding the sector, especially in the mining and oil sectors. Honduras became a candidate country on 22 May 2013 and now the country is working on the necessary steps to become fully compliant.
To mark the inauguration of the event, Andrew Tate, Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy for Guatemala and concurrent to Honduras, said:
EITI can play a key role in increasing transparency within the extractives industries and the use of the funds it produces. Today’s workshop is part of a programme of work that the UK government is supporting, to ensure that the new investment that this country receives is sustainable, equitable and ethically viable. Businesses, both domestic and foreign, have a key role to play in the economic reform and democratisation of this country. We share the wish of President Juan Orlando Hernandez to help create an environment where ethical business can flourish in Honduras.