Diamonds, Development, and Democracy

A representative of the De Beers Group rejects the notion of the resource curse as Africas bane, asserting that, as morally neutral, natural resources can be a positive force depending on how people choose to use them & that this choice will play an important role in determining how the continen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:World policy journal 2008-09, Vol.25 (3), p.211-217
Main Author: Oppenheimer, Nicky
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Africa
Botswana
Collaboration
Current affairs
Democracy
Developing countries
Diamonds
Economic Development
Economics
General Interest
International cooperation
International Relations
Investors
LDCs
Mining industry
Natural resource management
Natural Resources
Political Development
Politics
Portfolio
Poverty
Prosperity
Public Policy
Resource economics
Wealth
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A representative of the De Beers Group rejects the notion of the resource curse as Africas bane, asserting that, as morally neutral, natural resources can be a positive force depending on how people choose to use them & that this choice will play an important role in determining how the continent will look 25 years from now. More specifically, it is argued that, given resource competition, the choice belongs to African governments & outside investors, particularly resource companies. Botswana is cited as an example of how a government can make effective use of diamond revenues for development purposes & how over the next 25 years such prudent stewardship can bring genuine prosperity to an ever-widening segment of the population. Per Niall Ferguson, Botswanas trajectory is seen as an opportunity to refute the resource curse. Much depends on Botswanas ability to use its finite diamond resources to build a strong diversified economy that will function effectively when those resources are no longer the primary source of income; local public-private mining partnerships are seen as one way to ensure this by unlocking the downstream value of diamond production. Further, mining companies must also engage in social investment. Attention is then given to the diamond industrys response the use of diamond revenues to fund conflicts, including its role in the Kimberly Process; how the industry is supporting democratization & good governance in Africa; & the need to generate opportunities on the continent to arrest African brain drain. D. Edelman
ISSN:0740-2775
1936-0924
DOI:10.1162/wopj.2008.25.3.211