Politics and Resource Extraction in Ethiopia

 The Rift Valley Institute published in 2024 a paper titled "Prosperity to the Periphery? The Politics of Resource Extraction in Ethiopia, Post-2018" by Jonah Wedekind.

The Abiy Ahmed government sought to reform the governance of resource extraction and revenue distribution by sharing them more fairly with politically marginalized regions.  The author concludes that despite the ruling Prosperity Party's pledge to redress Ethiopia's center-periphery model of politics, the balance of power vis-a-vis peripheral regions and the political center has not shifted fundamentally.  

China Dominates Processing of African Minerals

 Atlantic Dialogues in Morocco posted an eleven-minute podcast recently titled "Control of Critical Minerals in Africa" with Amit Jain, director of the Centre for African Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

China dominates the extraction and processing of critical minerals from resource rich African countries, but the governments of most of those countries are failing to maximize the profit they could earn by negotiating for more processing to be done on the continent.   

China and Resource Extraction in Africa

The most recent issue of The Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy published by Nigeria's Afe Babalola University contains a study titled "China's Influence in Africa: Current Roles and Future Prospects in Resource Extraction" by Liu Haifang, Peking University.

The article looks at the basis of China-Africa cooperation and especially the role of mineral resources in this relationship. It gives particular attention to China's interaction with Angola.

China-Africa Economic Diplomacy

China Dialogue published on 12 February 2015 commentary on a new book in Chinese titled China-Africa Economic Deiplomacy and Its Implications for the Global Value Chain by Tang Xiaoyang, a scholar at the Tsinghua-Carnegie Center for Global Policy.  The commentary on the book is by Liu Qin.

Tang argues that the drivers of resource extraction in Africa are modern society's technological development and consumer demands and not a neo-colonial policy by China.  He goes on to warn that the next concern may be the move from China to Africa of energy hungry and polluting manufacturers.  This would effectively transfer pollution (and jobs) from China to Africa. 

Ending Conflict and Building Peace in Africa

The High-Level Panel on Fragile States in Africa released its report on 15 January 2014 titled "Ending Conflict and Building Peace in Africa: A Call to Action." 

The report identified the following as major challenges facing Africa: youth employment, urbanization, governance of natural resources, climate change, poverty and inequality.  It recommended that African countries increase their focus on the following issues: develop new strategies for youth employment, create new instruments for supporting private investment, empower women, fund infrastructure that improves justice and security, and promote resilience through regional economic cooperation.

China and Southern Africa

Southern Africa Resource Watch (SARW) published a book in 2012 titled Win-Win Partnership? China, Southern Africa and the Extractive Industries. The project was sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa. SARW has a headquarters in Johannesburg and a field office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Editors of the book were Garth Shelton and Claude Kabemba.

The study investigated the China-Africa relationship in relation to the extraction of natural resources across ten countries in southern Africa and suggested policy options that would help to create a more positive relationship and support mutual economic development.

As China's economy grows, increased commercial interaction with Africa will offer the continent new prospects for trade and investment. The key to success for Africa lies in the continent adopting the appropriate responses to address existing impediments to growth. Africa needs to ensure a mutually beneficial outcome in its dealings with China, and build local capacity to meet the challenges posed by the relationship. China has a clear strategy for Africa, but Africa has no strategy for China.

The book covers the scale of Chinese investment in the region, the nature of China's relationship with Africa, the development impact of China's role in the region, the social responsibility of Chinese owned companies and internal constraints on ensuring a developmental impact from Chinese investment.

Click here to access the book.