Briefing Paper

From Natural Resource Dependence to Diversified Economies: An Agenda for Future Research

“This paper has argued that Africa’s recent growth episode is encouraging on some levels, but substantial questions remain over governance quality, uneven improvement in social indicators and the volatility of resource concentrated
growth. Improved governance of natural resources, especially finite extractives,
is therefore a critical research and policy goal. Resource extraction necessarily entails difficult
trade-offs, particularly pertaining to climate change and preserving ecological integrity It also requires large sums of foreign investment, which raises governance questions about the constraints within which those investors operate.”