Bonnie Campbell

Factoring in governance is not enough. Mining codes in Africa, policy reform and corporate responsibility

One of the main hypotheses underlying much of the discussion and certain of the recommendations made by the World Bank Groups Extractive Industries Review suggests that the quality of governance of a country is a key determinant for the development outcomes of extractive industries activities. While undoubtedly of central importance, a recent comparative study of mining codes in Africa suggests that while the quality of national governance is undoubtedly a key ingredient, no amount of local governance is sufficient if not accompanied by legal and fiscal frameworks designed to meet development objectives and which are implemented in the context of good international policies and rules. Based on this study, the article suggests that the reform measures introduced largely at the recommendation of multilateral financial institutions over the last twenty years have entailed a redefinition of the role of the state that is so profound that it has no historical precedent and that this situation has not received ...

Revisiting the Reform Process of African Mining Regimes

Abstract This article examines the reform of regulatory frameworks that has taken place in Africa over the last twenty years in light of the findings of a research project on the negotiation of mining regimes in Canada. The argument is that certain elements of the free mining doctrine that animated the nineteenth-century formulation of mining regimes in North America can be seen as having guided the liberalization process of African mining regimes during the 1980s and 1990s. One of the ways this came about was through the strong retrenchment of state authority. In turn, this contributed to the institutionalization of asymmetrical relations of power and influence with important consequences for local political processes, local participation, and community welfare.

Guinea's Economic Performance Under Structural Adjustment: Importance of Mining and Agriculture

Domestic policy inadequacies have been targeted by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the main reason for poor economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa generally. 1 The structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) sponsored by these international financial institutions (IFIs) over the past decade have sought to rectify such policies. But many countries following their advice have continued to experience economic decline, albeit according to the World Bank, as a result primarily of their failure to properly implement the recommended reforms. It was argued in the late 1980s and early 1990S that governments pursuing strong adjustment programmes, even in the face of inhospitable world economic conditions, still outperformed weak reformers. 2 This analysis does not hold with the same weight for all African countries. In the case of Guinea, external factors have been equally important in explaining its economic record under adjustment.

Regulation & Legitimacy in the Mining Industry in Africa: Where does Canada Stand?

There are more than 1,000 mining companies listed on Canadian stock exchanges, more than any other country and, as such, represent the most important source of investment in mining in Africa. This article provides a preliminary evaluation of the experience and report of the Canadian National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). It does so in the context of the surge of Canadian investment in mining in Africa and of increasing public awareness of the negative impacts of the activities of Canadian mining enterprises. It examines the issues of resource governance and the ‘securitisation’ of mining activities. The recommendations favouring adoption of a Canadian set of CSR Standards for Canadian extractive‐sector companies operating abroad is contextualised in the global expansion of transnational mining investment that since the 1990s led to increasing conflicts with local communities.

Good Governance, Security and Mining in Africa1

Using as a point of departure the observations contained in the document ‘Our Common Interest. Report of the Commission for Africa (March 2005)’, Chapter 5: “Countries with economies dependent on one or a few primary commodities, particularly high‐value resources such as oil and other minerals, are often poor, have weak and less accountable governance systems, and are more vulnerable to violent conflict and economic shocks”, the article sets out to explore the broader trends and specific conditions which might help explain why mining activities in Africa may well be at present and increasingly in the future, linked to issues of security. To this end the paper explores various hypotheses which have been put forward such as the following: • an overly externally driven reform process may well have contributed to undermining the legitimacy of the governments of mineral rich countries concerned. • economic reforms, and mining policies more specifically, have perhaps not sufficiently contributed to building eff...

New Rules of the Game: The World Bank's Role in the Construction of New Normative Frameworks for States, Markets and Social Exclusion

ABSTRACT This article examines the new social and political norms emerging as a result of the leadership which multilateral funding organizations and notably the World Bank have assumed in the process of institutional reform and the reconceptualization of the state. An analysis of the World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World, situates it in the context of the thinking preceding and following its publication. Next, the article examines the reasons why the World Bank has recently addressed the issue of social equity and the manner in which it has defined this nation, which will illustrate how this has led to the introduction of new norms, notably in the social sphere. Finally, it explores some of the social and political implications of the introduction of these new norms. The author argues that present trends entail a major shift not only in the locus of the production of new normative frameworks, but also an important redefinition of their content and the strategies which accompany them—trends which do not seem to have received the attention they deserve.

Modes of governance and revenue flows in African mining

Introduction Bonnie Campbell 1. An Overview of Revenue Flows from the Mining Sector: Impacts, Debates and Policy Recommendations John Jacobs 2. Regulatory Framework Review and Mining Regime Reform in Mali: Degrees of Rupture and Continuity Sael Gagne-Ouellet 3. Constraints to Maximization of Net National Retained Earnings from the Mining Sector: Challenges for National Economic Development and Poverty Reduction in Sub Saharan Africa as illustrated by Ghana Thomas M. Akabzaa 4. Artisanal Mining in Ghana: Institutional Arrangements, Resource Flows, and Poverty Alleviation Gavin Hilson and Godfried Okoh 5. Tracing Revenue Flows, Governance and the Challenges of Poverty Reduction in the Democratic Republic of Congos Artisanal Mining Sector Didier de Failly S.J., Zacharie Bulakali Ntakobajira and Lucien Bahimba Shonja Conclusion Bonnie Campbell

Negotiating the Bauxite/Aluminium Sector Under Narrowing Constraints

A study of Guineas aluminium industry which demonstrates that the presence of large bauxite deposits and energy resources has not been sufficient for Guinea to integrate the production process within its own borders. Despite multinational promises to increase the extent of local transformation, they have preferred to locate production in countries with a proximity to large markets. This development reflects new forms of integration in the internationalisation of capital rather than the comparative costs of factors of production. In this changing context, the Guinean state, severely constrained by the IMF and World Bank, has been unable to bargain successfully with the multinationals.

Neocolonialism, economic dependence and political change: a case study of cotton and textile production in the Ivory Coast 1960 to 1970

Political and economic change in the Ivory Coast between 1960 and 1970 reflects the contradictions of capital accumulation in post‐war metropolitan France, transferred to the periphery. The weakness of the French textile industry after the war led to the need for overseas expansion and for State support. The role of the French colonial and Ivorian ‘independent’ states has been to strengthen the basis of the textile companies and their associates, the colonial trading houses, through legislation which gives the industry various tax concessions and protection against competing Far Eastern textile imports. The State has also carried out policies designed to increase cotton production for the companies and this has resulted in a decline in food production. The industry produces high priced goods which are beyond the reach of local pockets and has also replaced local artisanal production in some cases. Further the companies have expatriated their super‐profits abroad. While there are emerging contradictions be...

Revisiting the interconnections between research strategies and policy proposals: reflections from the artisanal and small-scale mining sector in Africa

Abstract The objective of this article is to explore the interconnections between the choice of conceptual and methodological frameworks and resulting institutional reform and policy processes and to do so from a broad developmental perspective. It builds on the analytical framework developed in past research which examined the links between issues of regulation and legitimacy in the African mining sector. It draws attention to the structural relations of power institutionalised and reproduced by past regulatory frameworks, in order to analyse how this heritage has conditioned approaches to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) and, in turn, policy proposals. The article uses ASM as an example to illustrate the need to rethink appropriate categories to capture shifting boundaries and to re-assess approaches as preconditions to renew institutional reform and policy processes from a country-specific and participative perspective.