Resource Enclavity and Corporate Social Responsibility in Sub-Saharan Africa the Case of Oil Production in Ghana

Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions. If you have discovered material in AURA which is unlawful e.g. breaches copyright, (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please read our Takedown Policy and contact the service immediately Resource Enclavity and Corporate Social Responsibility in Sub-Saharan Africa The Case of Oil Production in Ghana Abigail Efua Hilson (née Ackah-Baidoo) Doctor of Philosophy in Management Aston University October, 2014 Abigail Efua Hilson, 2014 asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this thesis. This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without appropriate permission or acknowledgement. -1- Aston University Resource Enclavity and Corporate Social Responsibility in Sub- Saharan Africa The Case of Oil Production in Ghana Abigail Efua Hilson (née Ackah-Baidoo) Doctor of Philosophy in Management October, 2014 THESIS SUMMARY Why has Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) yielded such disappointing outcomes in oil-rich sub-Saharan Africa? Over the past decades, a sizable body of literature has emerged which draws attention to the shortcomings of oil-related development and complementary CSR exercises in the region. Most critiques on the topic, however, assess specific interventions and/or policies but fail to evaluate the complex decision-making processes, dictated heavily by setting, which produce such actions altogether. This thesis attributes CSR outcomes in oil-rich sub-Saharan Africa to the unique context in which the decisions underpinning actions take place. In doing so, the analysis borrows ideas from a diverse body of literature spanning the international development, accounting, management and political science disciplines. To explore these ideas further, the thesis focuses on the case of Ghana. The most recent “addition” to sub-Saharan Africa’s oil club, Ghana provides a rare glimpse of how decisions underpinning CSR have been identified, evolved and reshaped from the outset. To provide a comprehensive picture of CSR in the sector and its impacts at the local level, interviews and focus groups were conducted with a range of stakeholder groups. As is the case throughout sub-Saharan Africa, in Ghana, oil production occurs in offshore “enclaves”, which are disconnected geographically from local communities. This thesis argues that these dynamics have important implications for CSR. Findings point to companies also being disconnected ideologically from local development needs, which, in part explains the questionable CSR that has become such a contentious issue in the debate on oil and development in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years. The enclave-type setting in which oil production occurs appears to have stifled creativity and innovation in the area of CSR. This, along with institutional weaknesses, regulatory deficiencies and the Government of Ghana’s failure to adequately respond to local-level concerns, has produced these outcomes. Keywords: Offshore CSR, Legitimacy, Stakeholders, economic development, accounting -2- DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Rev. and Mrs Ackah-Baidoo, whose tireless efforts at ensuring that I had a good educational foundation has paid off. Thank you for instilling in me exceptional values which have contributed to this piece of work. I hope I have made you proud! -3- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It has been a long and arduous four year-period. In the process, I have learnt, inter alia, to think critically and to multi-task. My foremost thanks goes to God for his grace, sustenance and favour that has kept me through this period. I am grateful for the opportunities that this work has created for me. I am grateful to my supervisors Professors Stuart Cooper and Alan Lowe whose unqualified guidance, encouragement and critique have helped to produce this document. I could not have asked for a better team of supervisors. Even in the last few days when they were bombarded with chapters, they took time out of their busy schedules to attend to me. I am eternally grateful for your patience and commitment to see to it that this work was completed. Special thanks to my husband, Gavin, aka ‘Kobla boy’, for critiquing my work and for motivating me to finish this thesis (‘he courtin’?’). To my lovely daughter Maisie, without whom this thesis would probably have been completed a year ago, I say thank you for forcing ‘mummy’ to learn how to multitask. Thank you to Atta (aka ‘trustees and co.’) and Emmanuel the driver. I know that what you witnessed in the local communities has transformed your opinions about life. I hope that this work will also facilitate much-needed policy changes in Ghana. Jacob: thank you for driving me around Accra. I still think you made the Guinness Book of Records for the slowest driver on the Cape-Coast-Takoradi road! To my sister Eunice, brother-in-law Nana Yaw, my niece Charlene and nephew Casey, I say thank you for accommodating the entire Hilson clan during my fieldwork; Auntie Merle, Sister Grace, Auntie Tawiah, Kukua, Bridgette, Adwoa, Sister Kukua and Kobby thank you for cooking and taking care of us; to my Toronto peeps, Larraine, Mike, Philip, Effe, Kaiden, Patti, Joc, Esther, Paa, Ehita, Jim Jim, Barima and Grace, I thank you very much for keeping me on course; and to Dr Paul Kalmongera, thank you for taking time to read through my thesis and providing critical feedback. To the staff at the Aston Business School, Mrs Rosaleen Shirley, Mrs Shereen Awan, Ms Jeannette Ikuomola, Ms Irene Vickers and Mrs Ranjit Judge, thank you for your assistance during my four years at Aston. I could not have done it without you. Finally I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Professor Thomas Akabzaa, Joyce Owusu-Mahanuka and Ama Kafui Dei-Tutu for providing contacts for some of the key respondents in this study. I am also grateful to all interviewed agreeing to participate in the study: officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and Fisheries Commission; fishermen, fishmongers and carpenters; District Chief Executives and Assembly men; Civil Society officers; and company officials. Without your inputs, this work would not have come to fruition. -4- List of Contents Thesis Summary ............................................................................................................................................................ 2 Dedication ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................................... 4 List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................................. 8 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................................... 9 List of Plates ................................................................................................................................................................ 10 List of Acronyms ........................................................................................................................................................ 11 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................... 13 1.1 Introduction: Setting the Scene .............................................................................................................. 13 1.2 ‘Rentier’ Politics, Multinationals and the Oil ‘Curse’ .......................................................................... 15 1.3 Negotiating the Enclave .......................................................................................................................... 17 1.4 Organisation of this Thesis and Research Contributions .................................................................. 20 2 Corporate Social Responsibility in Oil-Rich Sub-Saharan Africa: A Critical Overview ........................ 22 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 22 2.2 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): A Historical Overview ....................................................... 24 2.2.1 Antecedents of the Contemporary CSR Agenda ............................................................................ 24 2.2.2 Accounting for, and Reporting on, CSR: Initial Movements ....................................................... 28 2.3 Corporate Social Responsibility in the Extractive Industries: Perspectives on its Adaptation and ‘Fit’ in a Developing World Context .................................................................................................................. 32 2.3.1 Perspectives on CSR in the Extractive Industries in Developing Countries: An Overview ... 33 2.3.2 Pillar

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