Protecting civic space in extractives governance: Towards enhanced EITI engagement on civic space

In many countries, advocacy related to natural resource governance and the extractive sector is one of the riskiest and most difficult areas for civil society work. In 2025, for example, among the top five areas with the highest number of killings of human rights defenders were land and environmental issues, indigenous rights and anti-corruption work. Other violence and threats, as well as enforced disappearances, have also been well documented. These risks can be compounded by stigmatising discourse by public officials and legal restrictions or criminalisation of civil society work, as well as legal harassment and abusive litigation against civil society actors and journalists.

In this context, protecting civic space is critical. This requires an enabling environment for people to participate meaningfully in political, economic, and social matters, including with protections for freedom of expression, assembly and association. Without this environment, civil society cannot speak freely and play its critical watchdog role in calling for accountability and transparency in the extractives sector, scrutinising the allocation of resource revenues and detecting corruption.

The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is an important accountability platform in a sector where corruption risks, concentrated economic interests and unequal power can make scrutiny difficult. EITI provides a unique platform for promoting transparency around extractives, serving as a space for dialogue among government, private sector and civil society actors. As a multi-stakeholder platform, its success depends on the active participation of civil society, which may become a vulnerability when civic space is restricted. On the other hand, by providing a structured space for engagement, it also offers an opportunity to address the civic space challenges associated with extractive sector governance.

To fully ensure civil society participation, EITI must integrate stronger responsiveness to civic space challenges across its work. Commitments and steps from the EITI Board and EITI International Secretariat should be followed by concrete plans for enhanced engagement and implementation. This should occur both during and beyond the periodic Validation exercise, including through the development of clearer guidance and structures around using existing mechanisms. Heightened engagement with human rights standards and sources would also improve the consistency of EITI’s approach to civic space and avoid duplicating assessments that already exist elsewhere.

EITI should work to provide guidance and resources to implementing country multi-stakeholder groups (MSGs) on monitoring and responding to civic space risks routinely and responsibly, including barriers to civil society participation in extractive regions. While civil society constituencies may lead on identifying concerns, all three constituencies (government, industry and civil society) should engage actively and supportively on civic space, strengthening information sharing and disclosure on matters that impact civil society participation and identifying strategies for embedding civic space considerations into regular MSG work.

This brief evaluates EITI’s existing approach to addressing civic space challenges arising in EITI implementing countries and offers practical recommendations for enhancing civic space protection. It is informed by the experiences of civil society engaged in the EU System for an Enabling Environment (EU SEE) project,5 which monitors civic space in over 80 countries globally, highlighting three case studies from Colombia, Papua New Guinea and the Republic of the Congo.