9 March was the deadline for the first 22 countries that became EITI Candidates in 2008 to complete an independent EITI Validation, the EITI’s quality assurance mechanism...Only two countries – Azerbaijan and Liberia - met the deadline. However, it is abundantly clear that the Validation deadlines have worked to catalyse progress...In the last six months alone, the number of countries that have produced an EITI report has almost doubled to 21. Now almost all countries have asked for short extensions and are actively working to complete the validation process...The Validation process is revealing a lot about what the EITI has achieved in implementing countries...