Donor approaches to extractives management fall broadly under two categories: (1) individual donor strategies; and (2) multi-stakeholder initiatives (in particular the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)). Before EITI was established in 2002, donor strategies on EI were scarce. Donors tended to conduct their work in isolation and principally through funding civil society organisations, be it for advocacy, research or capacity building. Increasingly, however, multi-stakeholder initiatives are becoming an important part of donor support to EI. In addition, a number of civil society organisations (CSOs) are also key players in EI work.
From the literature, it appears that the key elements of donor support to extractive industries include:
- Governance, with a focus on revenue and expenditure transparency
- Technical assistance, capacity building and institutional support
- Exchanging knowledge and expertise
- Advocacy (including strengthening political will in host countries)
- Mainstreaming international standards into national policies
- Engaging in partnerships
- Ensuring that extractive industry benefits reach poor people
- Protecting the rights of people affected by extractive industry investments
- Environmental protection
