Over the last two decades, there have been substantial advances in the global understanding of how extractive operations can be administered more responsibly and with more attention to sustainability issues. These improvements have fed into the policy making process, providing many modern policy tools for governments to apply based on their particular circumstances and stages of development or transition. Good and/or best practices in addressing environmental, social, health and safety issues have made advanced significantly and continue to evolve and provide a solid base for modern policy making. Good governance, stable and constructive institutional relations as well as good economic management have also been recognized as key issues to be managed by responsible governments and the private sector, and have featured consistently in effective policies across the globe. In particular, transparency has emerged as a key tool for the sector policy makers, with the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) becoming the global standard for transparency and reporting in the extractive industry, in particular as a means of building local community trust and combating corruption.