Practice note 6: Natural Resource Governance in Conflict-Affected Contexts
Publisher: Holger Grundel (International Alert)
Date: 2010
Topics: Conflict Causes, Extractive Resources, Governance
Countries: Congo (DRC), Liberia, Sierra Leone
This practice note offers options for economic development planners and practitioners for promoting accountable and conflict-sensitive governance of natural resource wealth. The presence of significant natural resource endowments has been documented as contributing to the outbreak of conflict as different parties compete for control over resource-rich territory, fuelling conflict through revenues generated by extractive resources, and undermining peace processes as powerful individuals or groups refuse to give up what they regard as their fair share of the spoils. In such contexts, sustainable peace is often difficult to bring about as vulnerable groups most impacted by the conflict and living in proximity of natural resources (or even participating in their extraction) can feel aggrieved when they are not directly benefiting from them.