Natural resources need to be considered as a central component of peace or constitutional negotiations. Especially in developing countries resources such as oil, natural gas, diamonds, minerals, forests and water are most often the main sources of wealth. In a recently published paper of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, "Negotiating natural resources for peace", the authors Nicholas Haysom and Sean Kane stress how important it is to balance the different interests related to natural resources on the local, provincial and national levels in order to ensure a peaceful national development – especially in immediately post-conflict settings. To address this challenge the authors offer a conceptual approach to structuring negotiations, which includes a framework of questions related to ownership, allocation and revenue spending.



Resources are often regarded as a natural heritage, which underlines the emotional dimension of the ownership question. It may therefore be reasonable to focus first on the question of allocation and revenue-sharing and to delay the overall question of resource ownership for a future process. Doing so can avoid renewed tensions about the issue of property, as the study illustrates on the basis of Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). In addition, the authors point out the need to focus on more technical discussions regarding ways to establish good governance for the allocation and use of a resource, and for the shared benefit of all groups. One key approach in this regard is the establishment of coordinating mechanisms, for example in federal systems. Such mechanisms should involve regional representatives, aim at producing a coordinated natural-resources strategy, and reconcile contradictions between national and provincial law.



Another option is to involve international players, as illustrated by Liberia’s Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (GEMAP): GEMAP was adopted in 2005 because donors feared a resumption of the conflict due to the transitional Liberian government’s inability to utilize the country’s resources in a transparent and efficient manner. The programme inter alia places international experts in selected ministries and state-owned enterprises. The aim is to establish a transparent financial management system, to train and build the capacity of Liberian staff, and to report openly on their operations, revenues and spending. It is this linkage between the conceptual approach and empirical insights in particular that makes the Haysom and Kane paper a valuable source for practitioners. (Dennis Taenzler)



The Haysom and Kane report is available at

http://www.hdcentre.org/files/Negotiating%20natural%20resources%20for%20peace.pdf



For Liberia’s Governance and Economic Management Assistance Programme (GEMAP), please see http://www.gemapliberia.org/

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, December 2009