Benefit sharing, power, and the performance of multi-stakeholder institutions at Ghana's Ahafo mine

Sam Szoke-Burke and Eric Werker

Resources Policy, 2021, vol. 71, issue C

Abstract: This article examines the role of power, influence, and participation in driving the formation and operation of project-level multi-stakeholder institutions (MSIs), matching political economy theory with case study evidence from the Ahafo gold mine in Ghana. In Ahafo, MSIs were created through benefit-sharing agreements between the mining company and local communities in order to set and manage the distribution of benefits from the mining rents. Drawing on field interviews and other data, we find that the MSIs reflected existing power structures and struggled to enable broad-based participation in decision-making concerning benefit sharing and beyond. Despite having new institutions, and partly because of them, the ability of many stakeholders to influence the distribution of rents from the mine did not increase. The findings point to the role that complex political dynamics play in shaping the formation and implementation of project-level MSIs.

Keywords: Multi-stakeholder institutions; Multi-stakeholder initiatives; Benefit-sharing agreements; Community development agreements; Mining and communities; Political economy; Ghana; Community participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:71:y:2021:i:c:s0301420720309971

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101969

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