Main page content

How to Deal with Resource Wealth: Case Studies from Africa

mining, gemstone, Madagascar, 2013
© Dennis van de Water/shutterstock.com
Gemstone mining Ilakaka, Madagascar

Resource conflicts plague many countries around the world. New oil findings – such as in Ghana – create mixed feelings about their potential impact on the country’s economy and stability. Looking at experiences of others helps to avoid destructive resource management. The latest issue of the Life and Peace Institute’s journal "New Routes" examines the ways in which old patterns of resource management reoccur and new ones emerge.

Uganda, for instance, demonstrates the reoccurrence of classic resource related conflict dynamics. Jessica Banfield (International Alert) explains how oil findings start to interact with existing land and ethnicity related conflicts. In light of the country’s upcoming elections in 2011, oil might become a salient issue in political discourse. Banfield advocates for a "conflict sensitive" approach and the need for a realistic assessment of the opportunities and risks related to the oil production. Joint action by politicians, traditional leaders and civil society is needed to use oil for peace and development rather than for conflict.



Ruben de Koning (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) challenges the assumption that initiatives to stem the illegal trade in conflict resources help to prevent violent conflict. Focusing on eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), he describes how armed groups just turn to other resources that are not subject to verification schemes. Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), for example, is now focusing on the sale of marijuana rather than gold as a source of income. Another problem is the role the Congolese army plays in illegal resource trade and in extorting money from miners. Koning argues that incomplete security sector reform and lacking support to miners to improve their organisation and the enforcement of their rights undermine efforts to stem the negative impact resources have on the region’s conflict.



But there are also new ways and actors to approach these challenges. Two Tanzanian reverends, for example, explain the new but influential role religious leaders can play in promoting social and environmental responsibility in the mining sector. They describe how three institutions from different religions jointly influenced the debate on the environmental and social impacts of mining in Tanzania by conducting independent investigations and making their findings public. (Lukas Rüttinger)



The report of the Life and Peace Institute, "Extractive Industries: What's the Problem?" is available at http://www.life-peace.org/default2.asp?xid=



Published in: ECC-Newsletter, June 2010

Related content