Donor-supported approaches to improving extractives governance: Lessons from Nigeria and Ghana

Abstract

Donor interest in the extractives sector is based upon the premise that it represents an opportunity to improve a country's development prospects. However, in many cases the presence of extractive resources is associated with poor economic performance. As a result, some donors are trying a radically different approach. This paper explores two such programmes funded by the UK Department for International Development: the Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform in Nigeria, and the Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth programme in Ghana. The paper outlines five lessons learned from these examples. First, continual analysis is essential to understand the underlying incentives of key actors. Second, interventions need to be locally led in order to provide legitimacy for reform. Third, interventions need to be flexible and adaptive. Fourth, acceptance of an element of risk is necessary. Fifth, donors need to develop a new way of measuring impact.

The presource curse in Africa: Economic and political effects of anticipating natural resource revenues

“…Taarup-Esbensen, 2019), public donors who inter alia engage in geodata information and administration, macro-fiscal management, investment in infrastructure and skills development (e.g. Buckley et al, 2017;Macuane et al, forthcoming), the media that can legitimize or delegitimize certain resource governance practices and policies (e.g. Coryat, 2015;Davies et al, 2017), civil society that can support or oppose resource investments (e.g.…”

Lessening procurement deviations using procurement post reviews: evidence from Ghana

“…Procurement under international donor-funded projects International agencies and donors have been involved in the development agenda of many developing countries. Buckley et al (2017) presented a paper which reported on concrete example of how a donor agency is attempting to position institutional changes through engagements for better reforms in the political economy of extractive resources in Ghana. They reported interventions made by UK's Department for International Development (DFID) in the oil industry.…”

Extractives for development : Ten main messages

“…So there is a long way to go with so many countries closer to Zones C and D than to Zone B before the aspiration of Message 7 can be said to be achieved. However, even in difficult environments, politically-sensitized interventions have been able to achieve some progress as explained by Buckley et al (2017).…”

“…The United Kingdom's DFID can claim a leadership role in this area with its innovative projects in Nigeria (FOSTER) 20 and Ghana (GOGIG) 21 and more recently in Kenya. The assessment of the FOSTER example in Buckley et al (2017) demonstrates (i) how a regularly updated political assessment is essential to understanding the underlying incentives of key actors and whether possible new interventions may work; (ii) how interventions need to be 'locally led'-not necessarily government led but instead by relevant parts of civil society-in order to provide sufficient legitimacy to the reform effort; and (iii) how any interventions need to be flexible and adaptive in order to deal with a context that can change quickly. Additionally, their analysis illustrates that to take on any explicit role involving political economy, donors must be prepared to accept a certain degree of risk since the connection between inputs of effort and outcomes cannot be assured.…”