Seychelles makes country presentation at 8th EITI global conference in Paris |22 June 2019
The Seychelles delegation: (l to r) Ms Kante, Ms Nieves, PS Loustau-Lalanne, Mrs Elizabeth and Mr Joseph
Rebecca Loustau-Lalanne, principal secretary in the office of the Vice-President, led a delegation from Seychelles at the 8th Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) global conference held under the theme ‘Open Data, Build Trust’. The conference was held from June 18 to 19 in Paris, where the Seychelles delegation presented its country report and mounted an exhibition booth along with 51 other EITI implementing countries represented by delegates from government, private sector and civil society organisations.
Fatime Kante, Seychelles national EITI coordinator made a presentation entitled ‘The Seychelles’ journey towards transparency from its initial admission to EITI in 2014’. In her pitch she highlighted not only our achievements, milestones but also the challenges being faced by Seychelles. These include lack of financial resources, a dedicated secretariat and legal framework to enhance the country’s capacity to deliver successfully on the EITI standard.
“Seychelles is grateful for this opportunity to network and benefit from the best practices of other EITI implementing member countries,” expressed Ms Kante in her presentation on June 18 to a gathering of 30 people.
Despite the current challenges being faced by the National Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG), Seychelles has produced and published two reconciliation reports for the years 2013- 2014 and 2015-2016 respectively, which were validated last year in October as per the requirements of the EITI standard. Following this international validation, Seychelles was awarded the “meaningful progress status” which is very important given that Seychelles does not have hydrocarbon production.
EITI is a global standard for good governance in oil, gas, and mineral resources and was first established in September 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Seychelles joined the initiative on August 6, 2014 in the spirit of ensuring good governance, transparency and accountability in the extractive sector and other sectors. It is notable that Seychelles recently announced the move of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) secretariat from Berlin to be established in the country.
As for the way forward, Seychelles is expected to now review and expand the national MSG composition, submit the 3rd Seychelles Reconciliation Report, work on the Beneficial Ownership roadmap by January 2020, and finalise ‘The Transparency Act’. These will provide a sound footing for Seychelles to improve its status at the next validation in April 2020.
Besides PS Loustau-Lalanne and Ms Kante the Seychelles delegation included the chief executive of PetroSeychelles Patrick Joseph representing the private sector along with Rose-Mary Elizabeth and Giovana Neves from the civil society.
