Good Governance, Security and Mining in Africa1

Abstract

Using as a point of departure the observations contained in the document ‘Our Common Interest. Report of the Commission for Africa (March 2005)’, Chapter 5: “Countries with economies dependent on one or a few primary commodities, particularly high‐value resources such as oil and other minerals, are often poor, have weak and less accountable governance systems, and are more vulnerable to violent conflict and economic shocks”, the article sets out to explore the broader trends and specific conditions which might help explain why mining activities in Africa may well be at present and increasingly in the future, linked to issues of security. To this end the paper explores various hypotheses which have been put forward such as the following: • an overly externally driven reform process may well have contributed to undermining the legitimacy of the governments of mineral rich countries concerned. • economic reforms, and mining policies more specifically, have perhaps not sufficiently contributed to building eff...