Policy change and paradigm shifts in Sub-Saharan Africa: implementing the Africa Mining Vision

ABSTRACT

This article applies the concept of policy paradigm and the work of Peter Hall to the analysis of policy change in Sub-Saharan Africa by analysing the implementation process of the Africa Mining Vision (AMV), adopted by the Heads of State of the African Union in 2009. To this end, it draws on the experiences of several West African countries. It suggests that we need to pay close attention to three factors that are too often neglected in the literature on paradigm shifts and policy change: (1) relationships between transnational and national actors, (2) asymmetrical power relations and (3) policy implementation.

RÉSUMÉ

Cet article applique le concept de paradigme de politiques et les travaux de Peter Hall à l’analyse du changement politiques en Afrique subsaharienne en examinant le processus de mise en œuvre de la Vision minière pour l’Afrique (AMV), adoptée par les chefs d’État de l’Union africaine en 2009. À cette fin, il s’appuie sur les expériences de plusieurs pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest. Il suggère que nous devons accorder une attention particulière à trois facteurs qui sont trop souvent négligés dans la littérature sur les changements de paradigmes et les changements de politiques : (1) les relations entre les acteurs transnationaux et nationaux, (2) les relations de pouvoir asymétriques et (3) la mise en œuvre des politiques.

KEYWORDS:

• Policy change
• policy implementation
• policy paradigms
• mining policy
• Africa Mining Vision

MOTS-CLÉS:

• Changement des politiques
• mise en œuvre des politiques
• paradigmes politiques
• politique minière
• Vision minière pour l’Afrique

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Antonio Pedro, Declan Gemmill, Mark Purdon, and Valéry Ridde for their comments and suggestions. This work was generously supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (grant number 435-2017-1155). Although this article does not draw specifically on their findings but is based on complementary research, we wish to acknowledge the ongoing and inspiring work of the colleagues in our research team specialised on the mining sector in Senegal, Professor Ibrahima Ly and Dr. Lamine Diallo, and on that in Mali, Dr Alfousseyni Diawara and Dr Amadou Keita.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We use the term Sub-Saharan Africa while recognising the immense diversity of policy traditions, trends and objectives among the continent’s countries reflecting an enormous variance regarding history and context. While our demonstration draws only on a series of African countries, we justify the use of the term Sub-Saharan Africa on the one hand by the similarities among the mining regulatory frameworks introduced by the World Bank in the 1980s and 1990s (World Bank 1992), and on the other by the similarities in the resulting structural patterns and challenges. The latter were subsequently addressed by the AMV, which again refers to a common heritage, with obvious variations, but one that has affected Sub-Saharan Africa as a continent. Similarly, the recommendations that came out of that process recognised the need to apply measures to specific situations but formulated proposals regarding taxation reforms, linkages, etc., which were destined for mineral-rich countries of Sub-Saharan Africa more generally.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 435-2017-1155].

Notes on contributors

Daniel Béland

Daniel Béland is Director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and James McGill Professor in the Department of Political Science at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). He has held visiting positions at Harvard University, the University of Bremen, the University of Southern Denmark and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Professor Béland currently serves as Executive Editor of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, Editor (French) of the Canadian Journal of Sociology and President of Research Committee 19 (Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy) of the International Sociological Association. He has published 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 20 monographs and edited volumes, including the second edition of the Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State (Oxford University Press, forthcoming; co-edited with Kimberly J. Morgan, Herbert Obinger and Christopher Pierson), How Ideas and Institutions Shape the Politics of Public Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and An Advanced Introduction to Social Policy (Edward Elgar, 2016; with Rianne Mahon).

Bonnie Campbell

Bonnie Campbell is a professor emerita in the Department of Political Science of the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). She is the founder and outgoing director (2011–2017) of the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en développement international et société (CIRDIS) and Groupe de recherche sur les activités minières en Afrique (1998–2017). From 2007 to 2011 she was a member of the International Study Group of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) on the revision of mining regimes in Africa. She is the author of many journal articles, and author, editor or co-editor of fifteen volumes including Restructuring in Global Aluminium (1996), Regulating Mining in Africa: For Whose Benefit? (2004), Mining in Africa. Regulation and Development (2009), Modes of Governance and Revenue Flows in African Mining (2013) and La responsabilité sociale des entreprises dans le secteur minier: Réponse ou obstacle aux enjeux de légitimité et de développement en Afrique? (2016). At present, she heads up a research programme on “Accès à la santé, ressources minières et le rôle des politiques publiques en Afrique.” She has been a member of the Royal Society of Canada since 2012.

Mylène Coderre

Mylène Coderre is a PhD candidate at the School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa. Her research interests include political economy of natural resources, international labour migration and international development policies. She has published on issues related to mining policies in Sub-Saharan Africa, labour migration in the mining and agricultural sectors, and precarious migration in Canada. Since 2017, she has been the research coordinator for the five-year project “Health Access, Mining Resources and Public Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa,” led by Dr Bonnie Campbell. She is also a student member of the Research Collective on Migration and Racism (COMIR) at the University of Ottawa and recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and of the doctoral research scholarship from the Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et Culture.

Privilege Haang’andu

Privilege (Priva) Haang’andu holds a PhD in public policy from the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan, a master’s degree in political science from Marquette University and a bachelor’s degree with honors in philosophy from the University of Zimbabwe. He has taught political science in Canada and in Zambia. His research interest is in the role of transnational policy actors in driving policy change in African institutions. He also researches democratisation and its pathways. He has published in internationally reputed academic journals on institutions, democratisation in Africa and social policy. He has also worked in non-governmental organisations and consulted with international organisations such as the African Development Bank. Prior to his doctoral studies, he served for several years as Governance and Political Advisor at the United States Department of State. He currently doubles as the Governance Principal Researcher for Includovate Pty Ltd, an Australian research incubator, and as Development and Peace’s Regional Policy and Advocacy Coordinator for Saskatchewan and Keewatin Le-Pas.