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Articles

Governing with or against the grain? Challenges confronting African governments and foreign players in Africa’s extractives sector

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ABSTRACT

This article introduces a special issue which contributes to the governance debates pertaining to the extractive sector in Africa, where the EU seeks a major role. Better governance is clearly required to meet the objectives of the Africa Mining Vision and the EU’s Raw Materials Initiative; however, there is growing recognition that better formal regulations on paper will not necessarily result in better outcomes on the ground. Greater awareness of the potential unintended negative consequences of some governance initiatives is necessary. Companies involved in natural resource extraction in African countries must consider their roles in the governance question in far deeper terms than mere corporate social responsibility or attaining a social licence to operate. Similarly, at the EU level, more attention has to be paid to what happens beyond efforts to create greater levels of transparency, especially in the effort to stop illicit financial flows.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ross Harvey is a senior researcher in the Governance of Africa’s Resources Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs. His training is in Public Policy and Economics. He has specialised in extractive industry governance since 2013 and is currently awaiting the results of his PhD examination with the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Notes

1. The World Bank Group, The Growing Role of Minerals and Metals for a Low Carbon Future. Washington, DC, 2017. <http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/207371500386458722/pdf/117581-WP-P159838-PUBLIC-ClimateSmartMiningJuly.pdf>.

2. On the strength of the abstracts submitted, the South African Institute of International Affairs hosted a workshop on the side-lines of the annual Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town in February 2019. The workshop was designed to explore the findings of the research papers in the presence of EU Commission and AU Commission delegates, along with civil society. This also created an opportunity for delegates attending the Indaba and the Alternative Mining Indaba (AMI), which happen in parallel, to be in the same room. The event was co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, and SAIIA is grateful for its generosity. SAIIA also commends the authors, who have had to pass through a gruelling blind peer review process.

3. Ross ML, ‘What have we learned about the resource curse?’, Annual Review of Political Science, 18, 2015, pp. 239–59, doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-052213-040359.

4. The term was originally coined by Richard Auty: Auty RM, ‘Industrial policy reform in six large newly industrializing countries: The resource curse thesis’, World Development, 22, 1, 1994, pp. 11–26, doi:10.1016/0305-750X(94)90165-1. Also see: van der Ploeg F, ‘Natural resources: Curse or blessing?’, Journal of Economic Literature, 49, 2, 2011, pp. 366–420, doi:10.1257/jel.49.2.366; Diamond  L & J Mosbacher, ‘Petroleum to the people: Africa’s coming resource curse, and how to avoid it’, Foreign Affairs 92, 5, 2013, pp. 86–98, doi:10.4324/9781315685175.

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6. Robinson JAet al., ‘Political foundations of the resource curse’, Journal of Development Economics, 79, 2006, pp. 447–68, doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2006.01.008; ⁠Ross, ML, ‘What have we learned about the resource curse?’, Annual Review of Political Science, 18, 2015, pp. 239–59, doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-052213-040359; ⁠Wright J et al. ‘Oil and autocratic regime survival’, British Journal of Political Science 45, 2013, pp. 287–306, doi:10.1017/S0007123413000252.

7. North DC et al., Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge University Press, 2009; Levy B, Working with the Grain: Integrating Governance and Growth in Development Strategies. Oxford University Press, 2014.

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9. Acemoglu D et al., ‘Emergence and persistence of inefficient states’, Journal of the European Economic Association, 9, 2, 2011, pp. 177–208, doi:10.1111/j.1542-4774.2010.01008.x.

10. Davis GA, ‘Learning to love the Dutch disease: Evidence from the mineral economies’, World Development, 23, 10, 1995, pp. 1765–79, doi:10.1016/0305-750X(95)00071-J.

11. Ross ML, ‘A closer look at oil, diamonds, and Civil War’, Annual Review of Political Science, 9, 1, June 2006, pp. 265–300, doi:10.1146/annurev.polisci.9.081304.161338.

12. Larsen ER, ‘Escaping the resource curse and the Dutch disease? When and why Norway caught up with and forged ahead of its neighbors’, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 65, 149107, 2006, pp. 606–40.

13. Sala-i-Martin X & A Subramanian, ‘Addressing the natural resource curse: An illustration from Nigeria’, Journal of African Economies, 22, 4, 2013, pp. 570–615, doi:10.1093/jae/ejs033.

14. Acemoglu D & JA Robinson, ‘Economics versus politics: Pitfalls of policy advice’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27, 2, February 2013, pp. 173–92, doi:10.1257/jep.27.2.173; DC North et al., In the Shadow of Violence: Politics, Economics, and the Problems of Development, DC North et al. (eds), 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

15. Wintrobe R, ‘How to understand, and deal with dictatorship: An economist’s view’, Economics of Governance, 2, 1, 2001, 35–58, doi:10.1007/s10101-001-8001-x.

16. African Union, ‘African mining vision’, Addis Ababa, 2009. <http://www.africaminingvision.org/amv_resources/AMV/Africa_Mining_Vision_English.pdf>.

17. Berman N et al., ‘This mine is mine! How minerals fuel conflicts in Africa’, American Economic Review, 107, 6, 2017, doi:10.1257/aer.20150774.

18. Morrice E & Colagiuri R, ‘Coal mining, social injustice and health: A universal conflict of power and priorities’, Health & Place, 19, January 2013, pp. 74–79.

19. North  DC et al., In the Shadow of Violence: Politics, Economics, and the Problems of Development, North DC et al., 1st ed. Cambridge University Press, 2012; North DC et al., Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge University Press, 2009; Acemoglu D and JA Robinson, ‘Economics versus politics: Pitfalls of policy advice’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 27, 2, February 2013, pp. 173–92, doi:10.1257/jep.27.2.173.

20. North DCet al., Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

21. Hodges T, Angola: Anatomy of an Oil State, 2nd ed. Lysaker: The Fridtjof Nansen Institute, 2004.

Additional information

Funding

This special issue has been produced with the support of the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme as a Jean Monnet Activity, through the project The European Union’s Normative Role in African Extractives Governance, implemented by the South African Institute of International Affairs. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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