EITI Training Strengthens Solomon Islands Civil Society Role in Resource Governance

Civil society organisations in Solomon Islands are now better equipped to engage in extractive sector governance following a targeted Training-of-Trainers Programme held on June 5.

Delivered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the British High Commission in Honiara, the programme has strengthened the capacity of civil society umbrella groups to actively participate in the implementation, monitoring, and reporting of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

The training marks a significant step toward improving transparency and accountability in the country’s extractive sector, enabling participants to better understand revenue flows, scrutinise data, and contribute to informed public dialogue.

As a result of the programme, civil society actors are expected to play a more active role in ensuring that information on oil, gas, and mineral revenues is not only disclosed but also understood and used to hold institutions accountable.

Deputy British High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, Melissa Williams, said this training served as an important opportunity to strengthen the role of civil society with the EITI, promoting transparency, accountability and informed public dialogue in the extractive sector.

“It brings together partners and stakeholders at a timely moment, as Solomon Islands works to reinforce the systems, capacities and relationships needed for more effective governance of natural resources,” she said.

Ms. Williams added that this programme is especially important because it focuses on the role of civil society.

“Effective transparency does not begin and end with institutions publishing information. It becomes meaningful when people are able to understand that information, ask informed questions, identify concerns, and engage constructively in public discussion,” she said.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative provides a global framework that allows citizens to track the value of natural resources, company payments, and how revenues are managed by governments.

Through the training, participants gained practical tools to interpret EITI data, monitor extractive activities, and advocate for greater accountability in how public resources are managed.

UNDP Pacific Office Project Lead for EITI in Solomon Islands, Florica Dragomir, said:

“The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative provides a globally recognised framework for ensuring that the revenues governments receive from extractive industries are visible, verifiable, and publicly accountable. But the framework only works if civil society is genuinely at the table, not as observers but as active participants in scrutinising the data and demanding accountability.

UNDP role is to help build the institutional architecture for that process and to ensure that the communities most affected by extractive activity have the capacity and the access to make transparency meaningful rather than procedural.”

With strengthened knowledge and coordination, civil society groups are now positioned to support more transparent decision-making processes and ensure that the benefits from natural resources are more equitably shared.

Support to EITI in Solomon Islands is made possible thanks to the people and Government of the United Kingdom.