This paper was presented at an international policy conference ‘Competitiveness and Diversification: Strategic Challenges in a Petroleum-Rich Country’ organised by the Ghana Ministry of Trade and Industry and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation held in Accra on 14-15 March 2011. It argues that resource wealth need not be a curse for Africa and explains how current initiatives can contribute to the transformation of the continent’s resources into economic growth.
This briefing paper presents updated guidance to private companies on the new US regulation of 'conflict minerals'. The Dodd-Frank Act Section 1502 is game-changing legislation that introduces systems of due diligence that will be driven up the supply chains of tin, tantalum, tungten and gold. It will affect the electronics, automotive, aeronautical, packaging, jewellery and medical industries, and the mining sectors in the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjacent countries. This guidance provides a frank analysis of the likely effects of the legislation and the issues that remain outstanding in its implementation.
In a collaborative effort, Nicholas Garrett, a director of consultancy Resource Consulting Services / associate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and Laura Seay, assistant professor of political science at Morehouse College write on ‘Trade, development and peacebuilding in the African Great Lakes’. For the countries in the African Great Lakes, their economies – and for some their conflicts – are interdependent. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), investing in the creation of an economic and political environment that enables legitimate cross-border mineral trade to flourish could pay dividends, not just for traders, but also for governments and conflict-affected communities, in eastern DRC and throughout the region.
Based on original and extensive empirical research in Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), carried out in 2009, Nicholas Garrett and Marie Lintzer offer an analysis of the prospects of mining in Katanga contributing to growth and development in the DRC. This paper is published by Routledge’s Journal of Eastern African Studies.
This report develops a record-keeping system that allows the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt and maintenance, use and disposition of records for four pilot mining companies in Rwanda in the context of the Certified Trading Chains (CTC) Standard Set initiated by the German government to track mineral trading chains. The authors detail the record-keeping systems currently in place among CTC Pilot mining companies to record mineral production and transport; suggest improvements/alternatives to current systems to ensure traceability of the minerals and advice the CTC Pilot companies on how to implement a system of traceability.
This report assesses efforts within the private and non‐profit sectors to help ensure minerals from Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (EDRC) benefit the population rather than fund armed groups; it furthers the policy debate on how to promote legal mineral trade in EDRC through professionalisation, formalisation and increased transparency. The authors suggest policies aimed to increase the implementability and effectiveness of existing and proposed efforts to better understand the origin of minerals, reduce corruption and increase fiscal benefit to the DRC. By examining the Congolese Government’s and internationally driven approaches to regulating the trade, the authors assess likely outcomes in the challenging implementation environment in EDRC and argue that sustainable implementation requires larger economic and security sector reform efforts and must be compatible with the prevalent political and economic incentive structures of the mineral trade’s stakeholders. Looking to the short and medium term, the authors provide a set of policy proposals to realign these incentive structures to support a more developmentally effective trade that benefits the Congolese people. The report reveals the necessity of leadership from the Congolese Government as well as the need for co‐ordination and consolidation of different conceptual approaches as well as political and financial support from the international community. In particular the authors argue for the implementation of a transparency process at the export stage, where the Congolese Government already taxes a significant proportion of the mineral trade.