CSO and Media Contributions to the Fight Against Corruption in Ghana’s Extractive Sector: A Political Economy Analysis

Estimates show that Ghana losses approximately 30 percent of domestic revenue to corruption. Although losses due to corruption in Ghana’s extractive sector have not yet been quantified, the sector is plagued with incidents of corruption despite the country's commitment to international conventions, transparency mechanisms and best practices. A concerted efforts by state and non-actors is key to ease this canker. Understanding the role of CSOs and media in exposing corruption, promoting oversight and identifying the enablers and obstacles to their work is key to informing practise in the development space. This study examines the role of CSOs and media in the fight against extractive sector corruption. It identifies political economy factors that enable or hinder them in exposing corruption. Lastly, it identifies practical suggestions for surmounting the identified adverse political and economic factors. The research examines two cases of corruption, based on a desktop review and a survey of 11 state and non-state actors. A direct association between the role of CSOs and media and the level of corruption were established. Coalition building, using legal suits, sustaining advocacy, collaborations between media and CSOs are some enabling political economy factors identified. Inadequate resources to sustain advocacy, excessive duplicity of roles amongst oversight institutions, vested interests in extractive sector, inadequate prosecution of offenders by the legal system, inadequate evidence-based policy solutions by government, inadequate political will, limited access to information; little or no funding for legal action, increasing CSO and media employee turnover rates, are identified as some key political economy factors militating against efforts towards stemming corruption in Ghana’s extractive sector. These findings provide reliable information for CSOs and media in development practice, informs advocacy design, evaluates and improves media and CSO effectiveness in ridding the extractive sector of corruption.

Democratic Struggles in Challenging Times: Insights from Mongolia and Around the World

This volume analyzes different facets of democratic struggles in these challenging times. Its first section addresses the democratization process in Mongolia, one of the least-studied cases of post-Cold War democratization. The second section broadens the analysis to cover democratic struggles in other parts of the world and considers in particular the governance of natural resources, which is a key concern for Mongolia and other countries that rely economically on the extractive sector. Its contributors are drawn from a range of different countries, disciplines and career stages. They use different approaches and methodologies in highly complementary ways to shed light on underexamined facets of democracy from a variety of perspectives.

Local Content Requirements in Nigeria's Extractive Sector and the Implications for Sustainable Development

This article examines the framework of Nigeria's local content laws and policy, and the implications for sustainable development. The legislation is geared towards safeguarding local productivity and aiding the progressive aspirations of Nigeria's citizens. While commendable in principle, there have been questions about policy articulation, implementation and enforcement mechanisms, especially with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals. The article examines the local content legislation in Nigeria, and how policies have shaped the community-corporate nexus. This exposes the challenges facing extractive resource governance in a jurisdiction such as Nigeria and the discourses that have permeated legal scholarship on the practical deference to local content by non-state actors. It considers that well designed and implemented local content requirements are catalysts for structural development. To achieve sustainable development of its extractive sector, Nigeria requires state-led determination to stimulate economic growth and development. The article argues for continuous consultation as a bedrock for meaningful engagement.

Mining Technologies Innovative Development: Economic and Sustainable Outlook

Today science faces the task of ensuring the innovative development of the mineral extractive sector of the economy in resource-rich countries, in the context of unfolding two opposite trends [...]

An assessment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) using the Bayesian corruption indicator

Advocated across the international community for more than 15 years, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is now widely recognised as a hallmark anti-corruption scheme in the extractive sector. This study presents an assessment of the relationship between EITI membership and countries’ progress in tackling corruption. It provides the first study that looks at this issue using a ‘state-of-the-art’ indicator called the Bayesian Corruption Indicator. It also introduces an innovative estimation strategy combining entropy balancing with a difference-in-difference framework to address the baseline inequalities that exist between member and non-member countries. Contrary to the findings of many leading studies, this analysis finds corruption scores have improved significantly among EITI member countries. In particular, the evidence is strongest when we examine a sub-group of EITI members designated fully compliant with the initiative's transparency standards.

The Foreign Direct Investment Job Multiplier During a Resource Boom: Evidence from Mongolia

This paper explores a particular job creation channel during a resource boom, using Mongolia as a case study. Resource booms can lead to impressive growth rates in resource-rich developing countries. The paper examines the link between resource booms triggered by new resource projects and FDI inflows into the non-resource sector on one hand, and FDI and job creation on the other. Its analysis focuses explicitly on the non-resource sector, where the positive economic effects of FDI are more pronounced than in the extractive sector.

The Unwritten License: The Social License to Operate in Latin America's Extractive Sector

The Latin America and the Caribbean region has benefited significantly from economic growth driven by the extractive sector. At the same time, the region has experienced high levels of conflicts related to this sector. This paper presents an overview of citizens' perceptions of the extractive industries in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. Using a representative sample for each country, we identify regional and country-specific determinants of the Social License to Operate (SLO). The SLO is an unwritten license of social approval accorded to extractive projects by citizens. In this paper, we investigate a generalized version of the SLO, capturing public sentiment toward the mining and the oil and gas sectors in general. While our findings confirm that perceptions vary across countries, we show that governance is the strongest predictor of trust between citizens and the extractive sector, which is consistent with the evidence in the literature. In addition, procedural justice, distributive justice, and nationalism play essential roles in shaping individuals' attitudes. These findings suggest that strengthening government institutions could contribute to the prevention of conflict around extractive industries.