Dr Steve Manteaw(middle)
Ghanaian policy analyst and extractive governance expert Dr Steve Manteaw has received the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Global Chair’s Award at the organisation’s Global Conference, which opened in Brussels, Belgium, on October 8, 2026.
The EITI Chair’s Awards recognise countries, organisations and individuals for exceptional leadership, innovation and commitment to transparency in natural resource governance.
Ghana won the award in 2016 at the EITI’s seventh Global Conference in Lima, Peru, in recognition of its use of EITI findings and recommendations to drive institutional and policy reforms.
Dr Manteaw was part of Ghana’s delegation at the time. His latest recognition makes him the first Ghanaian to win the award in the individual category, according to the information provided.
Other recipients this year include Germany, Senegal, Suriname, Indonesia and Diana Kaissy, a Lebanese energy governance specialist.
The EITI is a global initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in the governance of natural resources. Its origins date to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The EITI Standard is implemented in 55 resource-rich countries and requires disclosures on key aspects of the extractive industries, including taxes, royalties, surface rentals, revenue management, beneficial ownership and the sector’s local and national impacts.
Previous individual award recipients include Senegal’s Awa Marie Coll-Seck, recognised for her leadership and work to advance implementation of the 2023 EITI Standard in Senegal, and Ukraine’s Oleksiy Orlovsky, honoured for leading civil society efforts to improve resource governance under difficult circumstances.
Previous country-level recipients include Argentina, Mauritania, Ukraine, Armenia, Colombia and Zambia. Their recognition has reflected achievements in areas such as national leadership, e-reporting, environmental disclosures, fiscal debates and beneficial ownership transparency.
Dr Manteaw is a communications and natural resource governance expert with extensive local and international research and consulting experience in natural resource and environmental governance, fiscal systems, and legislative and regulatory frameworks in the extractive sector.
He has undertaken assignments for organisations including ActionAid Ghana, the Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth programme, the Petroleum Commission of Ghana, the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Sierra Leone Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Guyana’s Ministry of Finance, GIZ, the International Budget Partnership and the Ghana Upstream Petroleum Chamber.
Between 2009 and 2014, he served on the World Bank’s Extractive Industries Advisory Group in Washington, DC. He was also part of an international panel that reviewed the end-of-project report of Ghana’s 10-year Natural Resource and Environmental Governance programme, supported by the World Bank.
Dr Manteaw has served two terms as chair of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC). He continues to serve on several national boards and committees, including the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI), whose Multi-Stakeholder Group he co-chairs with the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance.
He is also a member of the National Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership initiative and convenes Ghana’s Civil Society Platform on Oil and Gas.
In 2015, he led the consultancy for Ghana’s Africa Mining Vision Gap Analysis and subsequently led the development of the Ghana Oil and Gas Industry position paper on energy transition. He has also promoted responsible mining through his membership of the adjudicating board of the Ghana Mining Industry Awards since its inception.
Dr Manteaw currently serves as a senior technical adviser to the UK-Ghana Gold Programme, which supports the Government of Ghana in reforming the artisanal and small-scale mining sector and addressing risks associated with illicit financial flows.
