Bridging global standards and local voices: Aligning the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and community-led monitoring to enhance environmental, social, and governance frameworks in mining

Abstract

Amongst transnational industries, the extractive sector presents unique challenges, arising from its socio-political and environmental dimensions. Considering the major involvement of these industries in world economies, countries that sit on most of the natural resources often struggle with a lack of transparency and weak governing bodies. This has resulted in the resource curse in which communities meant to benefit from the natural resources face several mining induced challenges like economic stagnation, and severe violations of their human and environmental rights including the right to safe and clean water, right to a healthy environment, and right to food. Reviewing key legal frameworks at the global level, including the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the paper demonstrates that transparency remains deficient across the board. In reality, accountability within the extractive sector continues to follow a top-down framework, contrasting with the need for a tailored community-led approach centred on environmental, social, and governance principles. In this context, this paper argues for an alternative type of monitoring which prioritises the people affected by the extractive industries. Turning to community-led monitoring (CLM) in addition to existing frameworks like EITI, this research illustrates the complexity and the realities of accountability and transparency in mining. In order to make this case, this paper uses qualitative desk research to explore the interactions between community-led processes and EITI, particularly looking at transparency initiatives, participatory governance, and resource justice. It further illustrates that although EITI is essential to ensure transparency through disclosures of revenues, contracts, and beneficial ownership it cannot enforce compliance or manage the highly localised social and environmental factors unique to specific mining sites. Therefore, CLM helps address the gaps left by a standalone EITI approach and suggest pathways for integrating CLM into EITI as a complementary framework that take into consideration the lived experiences of communities to influence decision making. Taking a more critical approach to community-led practices, the research also points out some limitations of this approach including lack of capacity, shrinking civic spaces, and power asymmetries between corporations, Governments, and local actors.