Following the conclusion of Niger’s Validation under the 2016 EITI Standard, the EITI Board concluded that Niger has made inadequate progress overall in implementing the EITI Standard. In accordance with requirement 8.3.c.iii, the EITI Board agreed that Niger will be suspended and will need to undertake corrective actions outlined below. Having considered developments subsequent to Validation, the EITI Board also determined that Niger has made inadequate progress in meeting the EITI’s requirements on civil society engagement, which also implies suspension as per requirement 8.3.c.i. Progress with the corrective actions will be assessed in a second Validation commencing on 25 April 2019...Validation has confirmed that Niger’s multi-stakeholder group has actively engaged in all aspects of EITI reporting. Validation and subsequent assessments have also demonstrated the importance of the EITI to provide space for civil society oversight of the management of the extractive industries, amidst concerns from some stakeholders that civil society space is being closed...Validation and subsequent assessments also put the spotlight on longstanding discussions among Nigerien stakeholders about the freedom of expression for civil society to demand information on extractives governance. The challenges for EITI Niger are to ensure freedom of expression about the sector for civil society and to establish robust mechanisms to channel voices not directly represented on the MSG into the national debate to ensure EITI implementation meets domestic challenges.