Mining Transparency in Myanmar: Can the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Lead to a More Sustainable Democracy?

May 8, 2018 | Marjanneke Vijge
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Myanmar is rich in natural resources—gas, oil, minerals, and gemstones—yet is still one of the world’s least developed countries. Extractive industries are the country’s most lucrative sector and the government’s main source of revenue, but most of the benefits do not reach its citizens. Instead, resource extraction in Myanmar causes severe environmental and social problems and fuels and sustains some of the country’s longstanding ethnic conflicts. One of the main challenges in sustainably governing Myanmar’s extractive industries sector is the severe lack of government capacity, combined with high levels of secrecy and corruption. To address this, in 2013, Myanmar began implementing the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global standard for disclosing information about resource extraction. The EITI was seen as a central part of the country’s democratic reform process. The implementation of the EITI generated high hopes among civil society organizations for addressing the adverse impacts from resource extraction, though others remained skeptical. This raises the question: Can the EITI in Myanmar lead to a more sustainable democracy with empowered civil society? In my recent article in Global Environmental Politics, I argue that the EITI in Myanmar empowers civil society, but in unexpected and unequal ways.