Reverse the Curse: Maximizing the Potential of Resource-Driven

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Reverse the Curse: Maximizing the Potential of Resource-Driven McKinsey Global Institute McKinsey Global Institute Reverse the curse: Maximizing the potential of resource-driven economies resource-driven of Maximizing potential the curse: the Reverse December 2013 Reverse the curse: Maximizing the potential of resource-driven economies The McKinsey Global Institute The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the business and economics research arm of McKinsey & Company, was established in 1990 to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving global economy. Our goal is to provide leaders in the commercial, public, and social sectors with facts and insights on which to base management and policy decisions. MGI research combines the disciplines of economics and management, employing the analytical tools of economics with the insights of business leaders. Our “micro-to-macro” methodology examines microeconomic industry trends to better understand the broad macroeconomic forces affecting business strategy and public policy. MGI’s in-depth reports have covered more than 20 countries and 30 industries. Current research focuses on six themes: productivity and growth; the evolution of global financial markets; the economic impact of technology and innovation; natural resources; the future of work; and urbanization. Recent reports have assessed job creation, resource productivity, cities of the future, and the impact of the Internet. Project teams are led by a group of senior fellows and include consultants from McKinsey’s offices around the world. These teams draw on McKinsey’s global network of partners and industry and management experts. In addition, leading economists, including Nobel laureates, act as research advisers. The partners of McKinsey & Company fund MGI’s research; it is not commissioned by any business, government, or other institution. For further information about MGI and to download reports, please visit www.mckinsey.com/mgi. McKinsey Global Energy & Materials Practice McKinsey & Company’s Global Energy & Materials Practice (GEM) serves clients in industries such as oil and gas, mining, steel, pulp and paper, cement, chemicals, agriculture, and power, helping them on their most important issues in strategy, operations, marketing and sales, organization, and other functional topics. The practice serves many of the top global players, including corporations and state-owned enterprises. GEM works with more than 80 percent of the largest mining companies and 90 percent of the largest oil and gas companies worldwide. Over the past five years, the practice has completed more than 5,000 projects, and today has over 1,000 consultants who are actively working in this space across the world. McKinsey Sustainability & Resource Productivity Practice Greater pressure on resource systems together with increased environmental risks present a new set of leadership challenges for both private and public institutions. McKinsey & Company’s Sustainability & Resource Productivity Practice (SRP) works with leading institutions to identify and manage both the risks and opportunities of this new resource era and to integrate the sustainability agenda into improved operational performance and robust growth strategies. SRP advises companies on how to capture emerging opportunities in energy, water, waste, and land use, as well as harnessing the potential of clean technologies to create smarter systems, new jobs, and competitive advantage. SRP helps governments to incorporate sustainability into their long-term economic growth plans, supporting the welfare and prosperity of their people and protecting the natural capital of their countries. The practice draws on more than 1,000 consultants and experts across McKinsey’s offices with academic backgrounds in fields such as development and environmental economics, chemical engineering, oceanography, weather modeling, waste engineering, and international affairs. This expertise combines with McKinsey’s deep industry insights developed through decades of advising companies in sectors from energy, mining, and forest products to consumer goods, infrastructure, and logistics. For further information about the practice and to download reports, please visit www.mckinsey.com/client_service/sustainability.aspx. Copyright © McKinsey & Company 2013 McKinsey Global Institute December 2013 Reverse the curse: Maximizing the potential of resource-driven economies Richard Dobbs Jeremy Oppenheim Adam Kendall Fraser Thompson Martin Bratt Fransje van der Marel Preface Investment in oil and gas, and minerals will need to also examines the strategic implications for extractive increase significantly to 2030 to meet strong demand companies and argues that they, like governments, will (particularly in emerging markets) and replace existing need to adopt a new approach if they are to reap the full sources of supply coming to the end of their useful lives. benefit of new resource reserves that could come online in This investment should promise huge benefits to countries the years ahead. with major reserves of natural resources. However, all too often, governments in these countries have failed to make The research was directed by Richard Dobbs, director the most of their potential resource wealth. of McKinsey and MGI; Jeremy Oppenheim, leader of SRP; Adam Kendall, a partner in the McKinsey sub- In 2011, the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), together Saharan office; Pablo Ordorica Lenero, leader of SRP with McKinsey’s Sustainability & Resource Productivity in Latin America; and Harry Robinson, a GEM leader. Practice (SRP), published a report entitled Resource Fraser Thompson, an MGI senior fellow based in Revolution: Meeting the world’s energy, materials, food, London, led the research, with help from Martin Bratt, an and water needs. We highlighted the fact that the world associate principal also in London. Fransje van der Marel is in the throes of a fundamental shift in the resource led the project team of Nicolo Andreula, S. Aparajida, landscape. The unprecedented pace and scale of Byron Ascott-Evans, Soumiya Balasubramanian, economic development in emerging markets means Greg Callaway, Markus Gstöttner, Cecile Lavrard, demand for resources is surging, and prices for most Tim McEvoy, Angel Sarmiento, Sahil Shekhar, and resources have risen sharply since the turn of the century. Lee Teslik. We would like to thank Caitlin McElroy from the Our most recent MGI resource-related research, in Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment September of this year—Resource Revolution: Tracking for her input to the team. global commodity markets—highlighted the fact that, despite declines in some resource prices over the past We are grateful for the advice and input of many two years, on average commodity prices have more than McKinsey colleagues, including Gassan Al-Kibsi, doubled since 2000. Even with a step change in resource Nevia Andrisani, Henrik Arwidi, Hadi Benkirane, productivity—the efficiency with which we develop, Michael Birshan, Jennifer Brady, Anders Brun, extract, and use resources—significant additional supply Gauthier Canart, Elsie Chang, Dan Cole, Foucauld Dalle, of resources will be needed to support economic growth. Mark Davis, Kito de Boer, Dumitru Dediu, Amadeo Di Lodovico, David Dyer, Per-Anders Enkvist, This report—Reverse the curse: Maximizing the potential Luis Enriquez, Diana Farrell, Nelson Ferreira, David Fine, of resource-driven economies—builds on this past Barbara Fletcher, Christophe Francois, Toby Gibbs, work by taking a closer look at how the world’s rising Francisco Goncalves Pereira, Andrew Goodman, need for resources can be met, and, in particular, how Stewart Goodman, Andrew Grant, Rajat Gupta, countries that have large resource endowments can Wieland Gurlit, Stephen Hall, Frithjof Lund, handle them more effectively in order to bolster economic Svein Harald Øygard, Johan Hesselsøe, Vitaly Klintsov, development. Our latest research is a joint effort of MGI, Peter Lambert, Olivier Lambrechts, Acha Leke, SRP, and McKinsey’s Global Energy & Materials Practice Susan Lund, Johannes Lüneborg, Matias Marcote, (GEM). It aims to offer new insights on how the supply Sigurd Mareels, Jan Mischke, Tomas Nauclér, landscape is evolving in oil and gas and minerals, and the Scott Nyquist, Ellora-Julie Parekh, Xavier Peny, potential opportunity for resource-driven economies. It Stefan Rehbach, Jaana Remes, Jens Riese, discusses how policy makers in these countries will need Occo Roelofsen, Bill Russo, Nuno Santos, Jorg Schubert, to adopt new approaches to ensure that their resource Maia Schweizer, Namit Sharma, Paul Sheng, endowments are a blessing for their economies rather Marc Stoneham, Martin Stuchtey, Karim Tadjeddine, than a curse as they have proved all too often in the past. Amine Tazi-Riffi, Oliver Tonby, Asli Ucyigit, The report considers issues ranging from local content Michel van Hoey, and Jonathan Woetzel. to shared infrastructure and economic diversification. It McKinsey Global Institute Reverse the curse: Maximizing the potential of resource-driven economies The team would like to thank MGI senior editors Management; Gordon Clark at the Oxford Smith School Janet Bush and Lisa Renaud for their editorial help; of Enterprise and the Environment; Will MacNamara; Rebeca Robboy and Gabriela Ramirez in external Dirk-Jan Omtzigt; James Otto; Anthony Paul; communications; Julie Philpot, MGI’s editorial production Alexander Van de Putte; Magnus Ericsson of the Raw manager; and Marisa Carder, graphics specialist. Materials Group; Robert Court, Nicolas di Boscio,
Recommended publications
  • The Resource Curse Literature As Seen Through the Appropriability Lens: a Critical Survey Mehrdad Vahabi
    The resource curse literature as seen through the appropriability lens: a critical survey Mehrdad Vahabi To cite this version: Mehrdad Vahabi. The resource curse literature as seen through the appropriability lens: a critical survey. Public Choice, Springer Verlag, 2018, 175 (3-4), pp.393-428. 10.1007/s11127-018-0533-5. hal-02242454 HAL Id: hal-02242454 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02242454 Submitted on 1 Aug 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The resource curse literature as seen through the appropriability lens: a critical survey Mehrdad Vahabi (University Paris 13, CPEN) June 2017 Abstract There is a vast literature and several surveys on the economic and political resource curse. However, the surveys often fail to capture two points: 1) they disregard the relationship between this recent literature and the staple theory and the staple trap; 2) the appropriability issue has only been treated tangentially and has never been the focus of any survey. The present work fills these gaps. This paper shows that the political resource curse approach initially focused on the appropriability issue through the lens of ‘looting’ behavior of rebels and distinguished ‘lootable’ and ‘unlootable’ goods.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Resource Scarcity, Climate Change and the Risk of Violent Conflict to Read More
    WORLD DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2011 BACKGROUND PAPER RESOURCE SCARCITY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RISK OF VIOLENT CONFLICT Alex Evans Center on International Cooperation New York University September 9, 2010 The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Development Report 2011 team, the World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. Head of Program, Resource Scarcity, Climate Change and Multilateralism, Center on International Cooperation, New York University. Contact: [email protected]. For more information on CIC’s research in this area, see http://www.cic.nyu.edu/internationalsecurity/scarcity.html. The author would like to thank Cynthia Brady, Sarah Cliffe, Geoff Dabelko, Bruce Jones, Gary Milante and Martin Parry for their valuable advice and comments on earlier drafts. Abstract This paper provides a brief assessment of how natural resource scarcity and global climate change may change the risk of violent conflict in the future. The resource scarcity element of the paper is primarily focused on resources required to meet basic needs such as food, land and water, as opposed to high- value commodities associated with the ‘resource curse’, such as diamonds, coltan or hardwood (although oil is touched on in the paper, primarily because of the linkages between oil and other scarcity issues). The paper begins with an overview of projected trends in resource scarcity and climate change. It emphasises that problems of resource availability may be as much the result of poor governance as physical constraints, and that the risk posed by climate change or resource scarcity depends as much on the vulnerability of populations, ecosystems, economies and institutions as on the magnitude of climate or scarcity impacts themselves.
    [Show full text]
  • BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of DR. FRED OLSEN Fred Olson Was Born 28 February, 1891 in Newcastle-On-Tyne, England. at the Age of 15 He E
    BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. FRED OLSEN Fred Olson was born 28 February, 1891 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. At the age of 15 he emigrated to Canada, where he entered the University of Toronto and was the recipient of the Edward Blake Scholarship in chemistry—defeating 3,000 examinees in a nation-wide competition. Olson received his BA and MA in chemistry in 1916 and 1917, respectively. Dr. Olson was awarded an honorary doctorate from Washington University, St. Louis, for his many research achievements in chemistry. In 1917 he married Florence Quittenton of Toronto. During World War I, Dr. Olson was loaned by the Canadian govern­ ment to the United States to assist in the manufacture of munitions. He was put in charge of US Army research at the Picatiny, New Jersey arsensal, where he became aware of the high incidence of explosions and consequent injuries and fatalities in the powder factories. As a result of his observations, Dr. Olson developed a safe and widely adopted technique for manufacturing explosives under water (ball powder). This innovation greatly reduced the hazard of explosion in the powder factories; in fact, during World War II not a single casualty was incurred by US Army personnel during the manufacture of munitions. After the War, Dr. Olson was employed by Olin-Matheson as Vice President in charge of research until his retirement. In 1960 he bought a house at the Mill Reef Club, Antigua, West Indies. There he discovered the Mill Reef archaeological site, which he called to the attention of Professor Irving Rouse of the Department of Anthropology, Yale University.
    [Show full text]
  • The London School of Economics and Political Science Mining
    The London School of Economics and Political Science Mining Enterprises and Regional Economic Development: An Exploratory Analysis of the Sustainable Development Model Nicolas Di Boscio Thesis submitted to the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy London, March 2010 Declaration I certify that this thesis is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorization does not, as far as I know, infringe the rights of any third party. I wish to extend my thanks to Rio Tinto for the data and material provided and for their support throughout the investigation. As a Rio Tinto employee at the time of writing, I declare that no attempt to interfere with this work or to influence the results of this research has been made by the company or any of its employees. All the views and conclusions put forward are solely my own and do not necessarily represent those of the corporation. 1 Table of contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 11 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 12 Chapter 1 - New developments in growth theory ..................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping Mining to the Sustainable Development Goals: a Preliminary Atlas
    With the support of: Mapping Mining to the Sustainable Development Goals: A Preliminary Atlas Consultation Draft January 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD .......................................................................................................................................... 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 7 SGD1: End Poverty – End poverty in all its forms everywhere ............................................................ 14 SDG2: Zero Hunger – End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture ......................................................................................................................... 18 SDG3: Good Health and Well-being – Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages ............................................................................................................................................................. 21 SDG4: Quality Education – Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all ................................................................................................................. 25 SDG5: Gender Equality – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls ...................... 28 SDG6: Clean
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2020
    In pursuit of progress since Annual report 2020 report Annual Annual report 2020 In pursuit of progress since Annual report 2020 report Annual Annual report 2020 CONTENTS ANNUAL REPORT STRATEGIC REPORT 2 Five-year summary 3 Group overview 4 From the chairman 6 From the chief executive 8 From the editor 9 Business review: the year in detail 13 The Economist Educational Foundation 15 The Economist Group and environmental sustainability 17 Corporate governance: the Wates Principles, our Section 172(1) statement and our guiding principles REPORT AND ACCOUNTS GOVERNANCE 22 Directors 23 Executive team 24 Trustees, board committees 25 Directors’ report 28 Directors’ report on remuneration 31 Financial review CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 35 Independent auditor’s report to the members of The Economist Newspaper Limited 38 Consolidated income statement 39 Consolidated statement of comprehensive income 40 Consolidated balance sheet 41 Consolidated statement of changes in equity 42 Consolidated cashflow statement 44 Notes to the consolidated financial statements COMPANY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 94 Company balance sheet 95 Company statement of changes in equity 96 Notes to the company financial statements NOTICES 108 Notice of annual general meeting 1 STRATEGIC REPORT Five-year summary 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 £m £m £m £m £m Income statement—continuing business* Revenue 326 333 329 303 282 Operating profit 31 31 38 43 47 Profit after taxation 21 25 28 39 37 Profit on sale of CQ-Roll Call, Inc - 43 - - - Profit on sale of Economist Complex - - - -
    [Show full text]
  • Working Paper No. 163
    Working Paper No. 163 Liberation technology: Mobile phones and political mobilization in Africa by Marco Manacorda and Andrea Tesei | April 2016 1 Afrobarometer Working Papers Working Paper No. 163 Liberation technology: Mobile phones and political mobilization in Africa by Marco Manacorda and Andrea Tesei | April 2016 Marco Manacorda is a professor at Queen Mary University of London, a CEP (LSE) research associate, and a CEPR research fellow. Email: [email protected]. Andrea Tesei is a lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and a CEP (LSE) research associate. Email: [email protected]. Abstract Can digital information and communication technology (ICT) foster mass political mobilization? We use a novel geo-referenced dataset for the entire African continent between 1998 and 2012 on the coverage of mobile phone signal together with geo-referenced data from multiple sources on the occurrence of protests and on individual participation in protests to bring this argument to empirical scrutiny. We find that mobile phones are instrumental to mass mobilization during economic downturns, when reasons for grievance emerge and the cost of participation falls. Estimated effects are if anything larger once we use an instrumental variable approach that relies on differential trends in coverage across areas with different incidence of lightning strikes. The results are in line with insights from a network model with imperfect information and strategic complementarities in protest provision. Mobile phones make individuals more responsive to both changes in economic conditions – a mechanism that we ascribe to enhanced information – and to their neighbours’ participation – a mechanism that we ascribe to enhanced coordination.
    [Show full text]
  • The Natural Resource Cure Quality of Institutions?
    DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS Uppsala University C-level Thesis Author: Anna Wiström1 Supervisor: Niklas Bengtsson Spring 2013 The Natural Resource Cure Quality of institutions? Abstract This study explores the natural resource curse and its possible cure via good institutional quality. In theory countries that are resource abundant are said to have slower economic growth than countries that are resource scarce. Earlier studies have shown that resource abundant countries only suffer from the resource curse if the resources are highly appropriable and if the institutional quality is low. If resource abundant countries instead have resources that are highly appropriable and if the institutional quality is high they will benefit from their resources. If a country has resource with low technical appropriability no negative effect on growth is expected. In this study several time periods are studied and it can be concluded that for earlier time periods the resource curse theory in general holds but for later time periods no negative effects of resource abundance on economic growth can be detected. Keywords: Natural resource curse, economic growth, development, appropriability, institutional quality JEL classification: N50, O13, O40, O57, P17 1 E-mail: [email protected] Table of Content 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 3 2 PREVIOUS RESEARCH ............................................................................................... 4 3 THEORY AND DATA
    [Show full text]
  • Jackson Pollock & Tony Smith Sculpture
    Jackson Pollock & Tony Smith Sculpture An exhibition on the centennial of their births MATTHEW MARKS GALLERY Jackson Pollock & Tony Smith Speculations in Form Eileen Costello In the summer of 1956, Jackson Pollock was in the final descent of a downward spiral. Depression and alcoholism had tormented him for the greater part of his life, but after a period of relative sobriety, he was drinking heavily again. His famously intolerable behavior when drunk had alienated both friends and colleagues, and his marriage to Lee Krasner had begun to deteriorate. Frustrated with Betty Parsons’s intermittent ability to sell his paintings, he had left her in 1952 for Sidney Janis, believing that Janis would prove a better salesperson. Still, he and Krasner continued to struggle financially. His physical health was also beginning to decline. He had recently survived several drunk- driving accidents, and in June of 1954 he broke his ankle while roughhousing with Willem de Kooning. Eight months later, he broke it again. The fracture was painful and left him immobilized for months. In 1947, with the debut of his classic drip-pour paintings, Pollock had changed the direction of Western painting, and he quickly gained international praise and recog- nition. Four years later, critics expressed great disappointment with his black-and-white series, in which he reintroduced figuration. The work he produced in 1953 was thought to be inconsistent and without focus. For some, it appeared that Pollock had reached a point of physical and creative exhaustion. He painted little between 1954 and ’55, and by the summer of ’56 his artistic productivity had virtually ground to a halt.
    [Show full text]
  • POLFREE D2.5 Report on Global Governance for Resource
    POLFREE Deliverable D2.5 Policy Options for a Resource-Efficient Economy Grant Agreement no. 308371 ENV.2012.6.3-2 - Policy Options for a Resource-Efficient Economy - Collaborative project - D2.5 Report on global governance for resource- efficient economies WP 2 – New concepts and paradigms for policies for resource efficiency Due date of deliverable: Month 16 Submission date: 30 / 01 / 2014 Start date of project: 1st October 2012 Duration: 42 months Lead beneficiary for this deliverable: UCL Last editor: Michelle O’Keeffe, UCL Contributors: Michelle O’Keeffe, Jill Jäger, Franziska Hartwig, Chiara Armeni, Raimund Bleischwitz The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 308371. Dissemination Level PU Public X PU Page 1 Version 1.0 POLFREE Deliverable D2.5 Policy Options for a Resource-Efficient Economy 1. History Version Date Released by Comments 0.9 08/01/2014 Michelle O’Keeffe Circulated to POLFREE Policy Advisory Board for comment 1.0 07/02/2014 Michelle O’Keeffe Final version, submitted to the European Commission PU Page 2 Version 1.0 POLFREE Deliverable D2.5 Policy Options for a Resource-Efficient Economy 2. Table of Contents 1. History ................................................................................................................................ 2 2. Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... 3 3. Executive Summary ..........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Undermining the Rights and Safety of Workers
    Dirty Metals Undermining the Rights and Safety of Workers Mineworker in South Africa / n October 9, 2003, the south face of the Grasberg gold mine in West Papua, Indonesia, collapsed. OEight workers died and five others were injured. Government investigators turned up evidence that in the days leading up to the accident, seismic data had led mine operators to suspect that slippage was immi- nent, and that key machinery—but not workers—had been moved from below the unstable zone. These were not the first deaths at the Grasberg mine, the largest open-pit gold mine in the world. In May 2000, a landslide at the mine’s waste dump claimed four lives, prompting environmentalists and government Photo: ICEM officials to question the safety of recent production increases.46 In 1983, the chief safety engineer of an unnamed South Rock falls, tunnel collapses, fires, heat exhaustion, and African mining corporation told the Economist that “produc- other dangers claim the lives of over 15,000 miners every tion is more important than safety.” No one in a similar posi- year. (Miners in the notoriously dangerous coal mines of tion would go on record with such a statement today. And it China may account for up to half of these deaths.) is true that over the past 20 years, health and safety condi- According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), tions have improved in large-scale corporate operations in deaths within the mining sector as a whole (both metals most countries. Between 1984 and 2001, for instance, the and coal) account for 5 percent of all worker deaths on the average annual death rate in South African gold mines fell job, even though the sector employs just under 1 percent of from 1.23 per 1,000 workers to 1.05 per 1,000, while the all workers worldwide.
    [Show full text]
  • Congressional Briefing on “Natural Resources: a National Responsibility” Organized by the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (The Helsinki Commission)
    Congressional Briefing on “Natural Resources: A National Responsibility” organized by the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (The Helsinki Commission) Statement by Dr. Saleem H. Ali University of Vermont, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources; author of Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future (Yale University Press, 2009) Contact details: [email protected] Phone: 802-656-0173 Respected Commissioners, congressional staff and participants, we are convening this Briefing in the shadow of the worst mining disaster to befall our country in twenty five years. The salience of governance mechanisms to ensure accountability of natural resource enterprises is painfully evident to the communities in Appalachia. Not only do they exemplify the occupational and environmental hazards of resource extraction, they also show how poverty can persist despite an abundance of resource wealth. However, my aim here is not to berate resource extraction but to deliberate on how to make resource economies work most effectively for mineral-dependent communities. Minerals are undoubtedly an essential ingredient in developing modern economies and consequently a security priority as well. The mandate of the Helsinki Commission provides an opportunity to consider efforts at reforming governance systems around natural resource extraction at multiple levels. Principle VII of the accords which led to the establishment of this commission under U.S. law, support the “respect of human rights and fundamental freedom.” This principle coupled with the mandate to “promote humanitarian activities” as stipulated in Basket III of the accords has collectively led to the application of a so-called “human dimension” to this commission’s activities.
    [Show full text]