Extracting Data: Analysis for EITI national report 2006-2011

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, implemented in Mongolia since 2006 and aiming to disclose information about payments by companies to the state, has done a remarkable work and collected a large amount of different types of data. However, delivering these data to citizens in a comprehensible way, and using data for policy analysis and formulation have been inadequate. To address this gap, Open Society Forum, together with Publish What You Pay Mongolia, a coalition of civil society organizations working for transparency of the extractive sector, has embarked on implementing this study. The aim of this study was to transform the accumulated data into a simple-to-use format, introduce some methods for analysing the data, and eventually improve the use of data and bring them closer to the needs of ordinary people. In parallel, we have touched upon the issues that need to be resolved at the policy level in order to ensure transparency and accessibility of information and data pertaining to the extractives sector, and prepared a set of recommendations. Furthermore, we have specifically included recommendations on how ordinary people in different mining communities can access and process information about mining companies operating in their neighborhood.