JAKARTA – “How’s response of local government when they receive citizen’s reports on mining?” asked Clare Short, Chair of EITI International to Indonesian CSOs in the sideline of Public Discussion “Challenges of Revenue Transparency from Mining, Oil and Gas sector in New Era Government”, organized by PWYP Indonesia in Jakarta on 4 February 2015.

Those question responded to Jensi Sartin’s presentation from PWYP Indonesia on the contextualization of EITI report and open data utilization for extractive industries advocacy. One of the example of open data in the sub-national level is drone utilization as a verification tool to ground-check mining operation, including area of operation as well as their operational activity.

In the terms of spatial maps, PWYP Indonesia collaborated with Swandiri Institute initiated mining permit that has been overlaid with oil palm and forestry industries. Through this overlaying process, permits overlapping can be identified and potential loss revenue also can be calculated.

Answering Clare Short’s question, Jensi revealed that those overlapping data given to local government as an input for Spatial and Regional Planning in West Kalimantan. When one of CSO representative asked whether there was a case study in other countries EITI Implementation that has similar complexity with Indonesia, Clare Short pointed out Nigeria and Kongo.Clare Short also added that it took a long time to push policy reform. However, optimism still need to be built. “What happened in West Kalimantan, Nigeria, and Kongo indicate that the changes could be driven by the role of civil society”, mentioned Clare Short.