Support to Albania Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Mainstreaming Process

closed

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is the global standard to promote the accountable management of natural resources. Albania became EITI candidate in May 2009 and was became compliant with the EITI for the first time in May 2013. EITI implementation in Albania is managed by a technical secretariat, which was created by a ministerial council decision on July 07, 2010. The Albania EITI Technical Secretariat (EITI Secretariat) operates under the leadership of a multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) that was first created by a decree issued by the Prime Minister on July 21, 2011. The MSG includes the representatives of civil society organizations, extractive industry operators, and government agencies involved in the management of natural resources or collecting revenues from the exploitation of natural resources. The MSG is chaired by the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure and Energy. The Government of Albania (GoA) has sought to boost the contribution of the extractive sector to economic growth and employment by enhancing sector governance. While the challenge is significant, substantial progress has been recorded under the leadership of the Albania EITI National Secretariat. Transparency in the sector increased with the publication of eight (8) EITI reports covering ten years (2009-2018). New laws were promulgated to entrench principles of transparency and accountability in the mining sector (Law No. 10304 dated 15 July 2010) and the hydrocarbon sector (Law number 7746, dated July 28, 1993 and amended on February 02, 2017). Albania’s EITI reporting also covers the hydropower sector. In 2020, ear the GoA approved the Law 112/2020 on the publication of beneficial owners. The law requires company participation in publishing the beneficial ownership by all domestically registered companies starting January 2021. In May 2018 the World Bank approved a grant in the amount of USD 600,000 to support the government of Albania's efforts to remain EITI compliant. The grant, which closed on December 31, 2020 enabled Albania to: (i) publish the EITI Report 2017- 2018; (ii) support the operating costs of EITI National Secretariat; (iii) enhance stakeholder’s capacity through EITI trainings; (iv) design and roll out a communication and outreach strategy; (v) develop a mining cadaster; (vi) create an EITI Open Data Portal; (vii) assess the social impact of the extractive sector in Albania; (viii) and assess the environmental impact of the extractive sector in Albania.Reaching compliance with the EITI Standard required substantial efforts and commitment from the Albania EITI MSG and the National Secretariat, however the challenges ahead remain massive with regards to attracting new investments to create growth and jobs. Improvements to sector governance require a better understanding of the sector’s socio-economic impacts by providing accurate data to support better policies to improve economic contribution. The proposed grant aims to strengthen the transparency framework for extractive sector governance in Albania. The Government has made significant efforts, but more investments are required to improve access to reliable and timely data. The proposed grant will provide support to mainstream transparency in public sector systems and to the municipal level of Government in mining regions and include templates for monitoring gender aspects related to the extractive sector as well as track performance on the energy transition process.