In a collaborative effort, Nicholas Garrett, a director of consultancy Resource Consulting Services / associate of the London School of Economics and Political Science and Laura Seay, assistant professor of political science at Morehouse College write on ‘Trade, development and peacebuilding in the African Great Lakes’. For the countries in the African Great Lakes, their economies – and for some their conflicts – are interdependent. In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), investing in the creation of an economic and political environment that enables legitimate cross-border mineral trade to flourish could pay dividends, not just for traders, but also for governments and conflict-affected communities, in eastern DRC and throughout the region.
This presentation was given by Simon Gilbert during the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Africa’s Great Lakes Region on the 1st of July 2010.
This presentation was given by Nicholas Garrett during a seminar organised by the Making the Most of Commodities at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town. It discusses the potential for economic linkages to emerge in Katanga, DRC.
This paper, written in the context of the World Bank’s Country Economic Memorandum and Diagnostic Trade Integration Study in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), discusses the question of whether the mining sector can become a source of growth in the DRC. In doing so, it contributes to closing an analytical gap in the understanding of constraints, opportunities and potential economic and poverty impact of promoting the mining sector in the DRC. It also offers solid evidence base for those keen to engage with and leverage the DRC’s mining sector for development. The report includes a discussion of the political economy of the prevalent structures in the mining sector. It considers ongoing reindustrialisation processes and the fiscal linkages the mining sector presently generates.
This report, released by RCS and commissioned by the multi-donor Communities and Small Scale Mining initiative, the Crisis States Research Centre at the London School of Economics (LSE), and the Crisis Research Group at Ghent University, challenges recent suggestions that mineral trading in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the main cause of the ongoing conflict. Rather, it argues that the primary reason for insecurity in Eastern DRC is the inability of the Congolese state to control the monopoly of violence and protect its citizens. The widely reported military predation on the minerals trade is another symptom of insecurity and thus intervening in the trade is not enough to solve the crisis.
This report, based on research funded by the UK’s Department for International Development, The London School of Economics and Political Science’s Crisis States Research Centre and the Conflict Research Group at Ghent University, urges policy makers, the private sector and other stakeholders to commit to reforming the existing trade in minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) instead of banning or disrupting it. The report, suggests that military gain from the trade in Eastern DRC’s minerals, which generated at least 4m US$ to the Congolese state in tax revenue in 2008, is not the primary cause of insecurity and violence in North Kivu. Though the report acknowledges deep-seated problems with the trade, it goes further and suggests that, in contrast to current policy approaches, security and trade issues should be addressed separately as trade-based solutions to security issues, such as sanctions, are likely to have little effect on the perpetuation of the conflict.
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This 2007 preliminary research report written by Nicholas Garrett explores the politico-economic challenges and opportunities for the EITI to contribute to transparent revenue flows in the DRC’s artisanal and small scale mining sector. The report is published on the EITI website.