Project Case Study
Taking transparency in extractives to the next level
Digitalising open data to improve transparency in Mongolia’s mining sector
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has flourished in Mongolia more than almost any other country in the world. Nonetheless, an underlying issue remained that the main output of EITI – the annual EITI Report – was not produced in a form that was accessible or relevant to the majority of interested stakeholders.
While the reports were “comprehensible”, there was limited evidence that they were being read or contributing to public debate, as required by EITI standard. This was because EITI reports were produced in hard copy or were downloadable from the EITIM website only as PDF files.
Critical data and information—the key to informing public debate—were not available to users electronically. Moreover, the EITIM Secretariat was not able to easily analyse and present much of the data as part of its communications strategy.
In line with global innovative and digital process improvement initiatives, the EITIM e-Reporting programme played an instrumental role in enhancing transparency practices in Mongolia’s mining, oil and gas sector. Driven by the objective to improve efficiency and effectiveness of EITI reporting submissions, we supported the development of an e-Reporting system, the “e-Reporting portal”.
The Portal enhanced end-user analysis, automated annual reconciliation and, crucially, integrated the e-Reporting system into other government systems and datasets, such as the Mineral Resources Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM) and the General Department of Taxation (GDT). With these improved and more effective and efficient report submissions, Mongolia EITI can champion extractives data disclosure across the country like never before. Extractives data is now available to the public on an online portal where information is consolidated and presented in an accessible and interactive way. This contributes to the EITI overarching objective of fostering an informed dialogue amongst the key stakeholders – government, private sector
Outcomes
- Decreased reporting burden and improved efficiency in the submission of reports; received positive feedback from government and extractives companies.
- Data sharing MoU with the Mineral Resource and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (MRPAM) and the General Department of Taxation (GDT).
