Project description

Title: Regional Resource Governance in the Extractive Sector in the Fragile States of West Africa
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Liberia, Sierra Leone (Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea)
Overall term: 2009 to 2012

Context

The member states of the Mano River Union, an organisation for economic cooperation between Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, possess extensive raw material resources. Commercial exploitation of certain natural resources and the question of who possesses rights to disposal over these raw materials are issues that led to escalation in the recent civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone and are tending to have a structurally destabilising effect, both locally and across the region. The situation is exacerbated by adverse social and economic impacts of production that have hit broad sectors of the population, particularly in mining and timber-felling districts. While these existing negative consequences could indeed be aggravated even further in West African nations as worldwide demand for industrial raw materials continues to rise, at the same time the revenue generated by such operations opens up potential scope for action at various levels of government and society. Exploitation of bauxite, diamond, iron ore, crude oil, gold and rutile deposits along with tropical timber and other resources found in the region can enable these fragile, unstable countries to mobilise development capital by their own means.

Objective

Further prerequisites to achieving positive development effects from raw materials production are being established in the partner countries.

Approach

The project advises the partner countries on how to sustainably reduce their dependence on external support over the long term by changing prevailing political and economic incentive structures. These efforts pursue African reform approaches and German and international political commitment aimed at enhancing transparency in the raw materials sector – a follow-up process to the 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany. The project analyses the various national extractive industries with an eye to formulating development-oriented partner strategies and structures. This orientation focuses on the needs, priorities and reform agendas in Liberia und Sierra Leone.
Through the targeted promotion of local, national and regional structures, the aim is to optimise public sector earnings and harness the benefits from the extractive sector more closely to reducing poverty and fostering sustainable development. Endeavours to achieve these goals include systemic organisational consulting, supporting a multi-stakeholder dialogue and advising on policy-making to develop national sector strategies based on experience gained in mining and lumbering districts. Efforts also seek to give the general public and the nations’ democratically legitimised bodies and institutions better access to information on the raw materials sector. This serves to improve budgetary transparency and boost democratic participation as well as to promote social dialogue and broaden the basis for political dialogue between government and the international actors involved. The project focuses on four priority areas:

• Transparency and accountability in the context of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
• National sector strategies
• Local development plans for mining and timber-felling districts
• Skills and willingness among the participating actors to pursue constructive dialogue.

Factors decisive to determining the success of this project include the political will as well as the capacities and expertise of the partner governments, the type and focus of interest among the private sector, the level of organisation of civil society and the commitment shown by other donors and international actors.

Collaboration at national and regional levels is supported by close cooperation and agreement with other initiatives and donor programmes launched for example by the EU, Great Britain, the United States, the World Bank and the United Nations. The executing agencies and implementing organisations in Liberia and Sierra Leone will be determined within the scope of the project orientation phase. Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea should likewise be included in these efforts once the political situation there has improved.

Further information

• Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
  www.eitransparency.org
• Website of the Government of the Republic of Liberia
  www.emansion.gov.lr
• Website of the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone
  www.information.gov.sl
• Mano River Union (MRU)
  www.manoriverunion.org