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At the recent Business for Social Responsibility conference in New York Christine Bader, who helped develop the UN Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights talks about partnering with the extractive sector: "There is much more awareness and acknowledgment of the fact that building a fence doesn't work. It just doesn't work to block out the community around you."
The Devonshire Initiative (DI) describes itself as "a forum for leading international development NGOs and mining companies to come together in response to the emerging social agenda surrounding mining and community development issues." It was founded in 2007 following a workshop in Toronto about conflict diamonds and the Kimberley Process. Its aims are to share best practices and lessons learned, foster new relationships, and act as a unified voice to external actors including the government of Canada. All workshops and discussions take place under Chatham House Rules. This allows it to be an effective forum where people feel free to share their opinions and trust can be built.
At the DI Summit in 2011, Bev Oda announced three pilot projects where NGOs would partner with mining companies: WUSC and Rio Tinto in Ghana, Plan Canada and IAMGOLD in Burkina Faso, and World Vision and Barrick Gold in Peru. These projects are still underway, and are receiving increased attention since CIDA announced a shift towards more projects of this kind in November.
The DI has conducted a number of workshops, summits, and published two reports. These and more information about the DI and what it does and does not do are available on the website here: http://www.devonshireinitiative.org/
That's all for now.
R
When the shift towards increased engagement with the private sector was made public in November, there was a lot of confusion about what this meant. In this piece, Fantino clarifies, explaining that CIDA will not be partnering with the mining industry, but "creating an environment where the industry on its own can achieve success."
Robert Fox of Oxfam Canada is concerned that CIDA is losing sight of its mandate, asking: "Is the presence of those (mining) companies in those countries going to create wealth that stays in those countries? Or is it really just more extraction of wealth from parts of the world that have always extracted wealth and exported it to the North?"
Jamie Kneen of Mining Watch Canada draws attention to the need to assist developing countries in developing and enforcing environmental regulations, and ensuring that taxes are collected from companies in order to benefit the communities surrounding the mines.
A representative from Barrick Gold claimed partnerships are needed in order to ensure that CSR projects are sustainable: "We recognize that mining companies are not experts in development and so we look for partners who share those goals (development and poverty alleviation) and who have the right expertise.
The problem is, partnering with mining companies is risky for the public image of non-profits, as I have seen with the organization that I work for: Plan International Canada. More on that later.
R
Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation, hosted a round table discussion on leveraging the private sector for development on February 11, 2013 in Gatineau, Québec. Pictured from left to right are: Greta Bossenmaier, Senior Executive Vice-President; Nicholas Kalogerakos, Minister's Office; Anne Gaboury, Développement international Desjardins (DID); Lois Brown, Parliamentary Secretary for International Cooperation; Paul Davidson, Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada; the Honourable Julian Fantino, Minister of International Cooperation; Paul Brennan, Association of Canadian Community Colleges; Jo-Anne Ferguson, Canadian Co-operative Association; Gerald Keddy, Parliamentary Secretary for International Trade; David Creighton, Cordiant Capital Inc.; Ted Thomas, Devonshire Initiative; Khalil Shariff, Aga Khan Foundation of Canada; Margaret Biggs, President CIDA.
Julian Fantino, Minister for International Cooperation, wrote this Op-ed for the Financial Post, defending the shift in CIDA's foreign aid policy to a new focus on supporting the operations of Canadian extractive companies abroad.
The Growing Role of the Private Sector in Development: Part 1
In November 2012, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development published a report titled "Driving Inclusive Growth: The Role of the Private Sector in International Development." The report argues that private sector actors should be seen as development actors because they drive economic growth through investment, innovation and knowledge transfer, and employment and business creation. In order to enhance development, the report calls for the creation of public-private partnerships, which will harness the private sector's expertise and potential to spur growth.
The report includes two case studies of sectors in which it is argued that Canada has expertise and strength that should be used to the advantage of development: financial services and natural resources. The testimony regarding the role of mining companies was "polarized."
Ross Gallinger of PDAC pointed to Ghana, Chile, and Botswana as examples of countries where mining brought positive results, citing taxes and royalties paid, employment, and multiplier effects.
Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada brought attention to research demonstrating that large-scale mining creates serious and long-lasting deficits, citing cases in which lack of regulation has led to environmental destruction, social conflicts, and revenue deficits as a result of corruption.
Pierre Gratton of the Mining Association of Canada poses the key question: "Through the International Council on Mining and Metals, we have been looking closely at this issue, the so-called “resource curse.” We have tried to identify ways in which we can ensure that this does not happen. It's by no means certain that the resource curse is going to happen. It's not certain that investing in Africa in a mining project is going to make the country worse off. It can make it better off... The question then becomes: how do you do development right? How do you do it in a way that ensures the likelihood of lasting economic benefits?
Professor Anthony Bebbington drew attention to address institutional capacity issues early on: "if the extractive economy grows very quickly without significant progress in building institutions to regulate that economy and use resources transparently in ways that foster stronger relationships between governments and citizens, then it's very difficult to catch up after the fact. Once the incentives have been distorted, once politics functions on the basis of access to rents, it becomes very difficult to turn that around after the fact."
The challenge then, is how to effectively build local and national institutions and governance capacity in the natural resource sector while resource extraction is taking place, because extraction cannot be postponed indefinitely until institutions are deemed strong.
PWYP is another key player in countering the resource curse. PWYP does this by campaigning for transparency in the extractive industries. PWYP helped create the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and serves on its board. However, PWYP would like to see not only voluntary but mandatory mechanisms for revenue disclosure through accounting standard reforms and stock market listing regulations. PWYP encourages contract transparency (Publish why you pay and how you extract) so that citizens are aware of the terms and conditions of the deals being brokered between their governments and extractive companies, as well as budget transparency (Publish what you earn and how you spend it) so that citizens can hold their governments accountable for how they use resource revenues.
It's Time to Tackle Tax Havens (by TackleTaxHavens)
A brief illustrated explanation of how tax havens are so damaging for developing countries. This video is produced by the Tax Justice Network (www.taxjustice.net). There is a whole website dedicated to this cause (www.tackletaxhavens.com) which explains how HALF of the world's trade passes through tax havens, which are hiding trillions on behalf of criminals, dictators, and multinational corporations.
If you are interested in resource conflict, this is the site for you. Global Witness performs fantastic investigations into cases of natural resource related conflict and corruption, publishes informative reports, and advocates for accountability and transparency. Enjoy.
This is a fantastic documentary that illustrates how resource revenues often disappear. In this case it is a community in eastern Zimbabwe, which sees no improvement in services, infrastructure or quality of life after the discovery of the Marange diamond fields. When the country's finance minister, Tendai Biti, is interviewed, he says he has no idea where the diamond revenues are going. He knows the quantities that are being exported, but sees none of the revenue coming to the treasury. So where is the money going and how?
Stanley Kwenda and Anas Aremeyaw Anas go undercover as corrupt Zimbabwean officials linked to the diamond trade to find out. They go to the Seychelles, where they find it shockingly easy to set up accounts without providing the necessary identity documents, and learn how to launder money through layers of shell companies.
Kwenda and Anas ask us: how is it fair to blame the failure of development on African corruption, when corporate service providers in places like Delaware and London, UK are complicit in the capital flight that deprives developing country states of the necessary revenue?
Food for thought.
PROSPECT n.
1. The act of looking forward, a mental picture of something to come.
2. Something that is awaited or expected; a possibility
3. Something presented to the eye; a scene: a pleasant prospect.
PROSPECTS n. pl.
1. Chances
2. Financial expectations, especially of success.
3. A candidate deemed likely to succeed.
4.The act of surveying or examining.
5. A place showing signs of containing a mineral deposit
PROSPECTING v.tr.
1. To search for or explore a region for mineral deposits.
Hello World!
Welcome to my new blog! Its purpose is to help me organize, articulate, and share my findings and thoughts on the issues I intend to study further in graduate school. I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, where I earned a Specialist in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Trudeau Centre, and Minors in African Studies and Political Science. In my senior year, I took a seminar course with Professor Wilson Prichard called "Rethinking Development: Revenue, Conflict, Aid, and the Challenge of State Building." For my final paper, I decided to look at mining, conflict, and development in the Democratic Republic of Congo. What I discovered through my research was shocking: central government making deals with foreign multinational corporations, giving them significant concessions in exchange for money used to bolster personal rule by enriching patronage networks and suppressing rivals (not provide public goods for citizens), mining companies giving rebel groups military equipment, logistics support, and intelligence in exchange for access to territory under their control, factions within the army enslaving civillians to work in mines, and enriching themselves at the expense of the government, neighbouring country governments funding rebel groups inside the DRC in order to steal minerals, and much more.
The DRC is widely considered the richest country in the world in terms of natural resources, with untapped mineral deposits estimated to be worth over $24 trillion. It's 2.5 million square kilometers of territory is endowed with one third of the world's cobalt reserves, one tenth of its copper reserves, and eighty percent of its reserves of columbite-tantalite (or coltan, which is used in producing electronic devices like cellphones.) It is one of the world's largest producers of industrial diamonds, has significant gold deposits, as well as petroleum, silver, zinc, manganese, tin, uranium, and coal. Fifty percent of Africa's forests are in the DRC, and it is also home to a river system that could provide hydro-electric power to the entire continent.
However, the DRC is the lowest ranked country on the Human Development Index, and second only to Somalia for lowest GDP per capita (at $237 USD.) Almost sixty percent of the population falls below the poverty line ($1.25 USD per day), one in five children dies before the age of five years, and only half are enrolled in school.
Abundant natural resources should provide a strong foundation for development and prosperity. However, often countries with plentiful natural resources have worse development outcomes that those with fewer natural resources. Paul Collier coined this phenomenon the "resource curse." His work has found that dependence on primary commodity exports is a significant predictor of civil wars. This is because natural resources provide easily accessible wealth for insurgents. Beyond being a means for conflict, natural resources can be the motivating factor. Collier and Hoeffler have found that “greed” has more explanatory power for civil war than “grievance” motivations.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is paradigmatic of the resource curse. Endowed with overwhelming natural resources, the country has known eight wars since 1960, and conflict continues today. An estimated 5.8 million people have been killed due to conflict since 1998, and over 2 million people are internally displaced. The use of rape as a tool of warfare has resulted in the DRC being known as the "rape capital of the world." An estimated 200,00 women have been raped, with 48 women being raped every hour.
The DRC is the worst case when it comes to mining, conflict, and underdevelopment. There are many other developing countries who fall prey to the resource curse. Conflict erupts in some, while in others, corruption, lack of regulation, and unfair terms leads foreign firms to profit while citizens see little improvement in their quality of life.
As a Canadian, and someone who is passionate about international development, it makes a lot of sense to explore and work on these issues. More than 70% of mining companies in the world are listed in Canada (with 60% of those in my current city, Toronto.) According to Professor of Sociology Alain Deneault, this is because of Canada's trading environment, which supports speculation, actively promotes mining company interests abroad, provides subsidies, and a legal framework that prioritizes the reputations of mining companies over the rights of communities in the countries in which the mining takes place. More on that later!
I'm pretty excited about this blogging journey. Please feel free to comment with any questions, ideas, or suggestions!
Rhiannon