Minding the “governance gaps”: Re-thinking conceptualizations of host state “weak governance” and re-focussing on home state governance to prevent and remedy harm by multinational mining companies and their subsidiaries

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, conceptualizations of “governance” have played a central role in debates about industrial mining and development. This paper examines three norm-setting processes whose focus on “weak governance” in developing countries led to policy directions and project-level outcomes that undermine agency of local people, who struggle to protect themselves from harm by large-scale mining projects, and delayed progress on mandatory measures in home states to prevent and remedy global harm by the industry. The paper argues for more attention to the strategic uses of the concept of “host country weak governance” as a root cause of mining-related environmental and social harm, impunity and development deficits. It exposes how this governance focus: masks long-lasting and costly environmental impacts of industrial mining in both home and host countries; distracts attention from a dominant economic model supported by mining companies and home countries that permits and promotes the continuation of unremedied social, environmental and economic harm, even in presumably strong governance jurisdictions; directs national and international policy decisions and public funds towards programs that maintain the status quo and away from implementing mandatory accountability mechanisms to prevent and remedy harm, as called for by those directly affected by mining.