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Erica stands under a rudimentary market stall in Accra, Ghana, selling fruits — she has done this every day for 10 years now. Like many women in the Global South, Erica was only able to attend school for a few years before having to leave to work and support her family. Initially she was training to...
The first of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty in all its forms, everywhere. The monumental task — a long-time dream of humanity — is followed by 16 more goals under the 2030 Agenda. Though they are all interlinked, to even contemplate their achievement requires a deep well...
Blog
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy, with world output contracting at 3.5% in 2020, and no recovery likely before the fourth quarter of 2021. Similar to other developing regions, sub-Saharan Africa recorded a 2.6% decline, following strong growth of 3.2% in 2019...
On 17 February 2021 the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) and UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database (ETD) will be launched. The new database provides crucial information on changes in the economic structure of economies across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Preliminary findings...
Blog
Originally posted by Oxford Policy Management The extractives sector, and the way it works, continues to change rapidly and its importance to many lower-income economies continues to increase. There is ever-more recognition of the need for development that is both inclusive and sustainable –...
Blog
– What can be done?
In the second part of this blog, Alan R. Roe discusses what is known about the informational failures that pose challenges for governments in projecting revenues from extractive industries. Read the first part here. Important new light has been thrown on information gaps faced by governments in...
Blog
– Information asymmetries and other disadvantages of host governments
In the first part of this blog, Alan R. Roe writes about the difficulties governments face in predicting revenues from extractive industries. Read part two here. Countries endowed with rich mineral or oil and gas resources have many competing uses for the revenues that arise from the production of...
Over the past decade significant hydrocarbon discoveries have been made across East Africa. Unsurprisingly, the respective governments countries have been excited about these discoveries, expecting revenue and local economic opportunities to follow suit. However, concerns about the macroeconomic...
Which of the following do you think is the most important need in developing countries? Free health services for all to reduce child and maternal mortality Universal and decent quality education to provide children with the skills for productive jobs Cheap petrol and electricity Unless you are...
My previous blog, which you can read here, commented on the manner in which mining companies had been able to respond to the recent decline in metals prices by significantly reducing their costs of production. In fact, this response arose partly from an exogenous event (lower energy prices), partly...
The recent publication of the 3rd edition of ICMM’s The Role of Mining in National Economies (hereafter RoMiNE3) provides us with the welcome biennial review of the global situation as it affects the large mining and metals industry. In addition to its regular update of the Mining Contribution Index...
– The last 25 years
Ever since the British Industrial Revolution, energy has been a key factor of production. Recent history has proved no exception. The pattern of primary commercial energy consumption since 1965 is presented in Figure 1. What is also clear is that, since the start of this century, energy consumption...
There has been great excitement in recent years about the huge oil and gas finds, offshore and onshore, in a number of lower- and lower-middle-income countries such as Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and, more recently, Kenya. The scale of the potential reserves, future production levels and government...
To read this blog, on a computer screen or mobile phone (or even paper!), a manufacturing process used plastics derived from oil, and metals mined from ores. Many of the materials are non-renewable (oil, gas, metals), some are recycled, and some are from renewable sources (perhaps the paper). The...
Blog
In an earlier blog we showed how the trend from 1996 to 2012 in low- and middle-income countries had been one of unambiguously increasing resource dependence – measured in terms of exports. However, most of that sixteen year period coincided with a time of rising commodity prices. A question that we...
Industries based on natural resources such as oil, gas, and minerals can play a major positive role in the development of low- and middle-income countries, however they can also lead to a very narrow kind of growth which excludes the poor and damages the economy and environment. Good policy is the...
Displaying 16 of 20 results