This book explores the nexus between natural resources ownership and the right to development in Africa.
The right to sovereignty over natural resources and the right to development are recognised and protected in an extensive framework of international, regional and domestic instruments. They guarantee people's entitlement to fully and freely utilise their natural resources as a means of subsistence and for economic, social and cultural development. Yet, despite the abundance of natural resources in Africa a majority of the people on the continent remain largely impoverished. This book articulates the central argument that to achieve the right to development in Africa requires appropriate governance of the continent’s natural resources to which the people of Africa are guaranteed sovereign ownership. With case study illustrations from Zimbabwe, Ghana, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, chapters explore the normative measures, specific guarantees and community entitlements to natural resources for the realisation of the right to development.
The book will be an invaluable guide to scholars and postgraduate students of Natural Resources, Development and African studies as well as policymakers and practitioners in these areas.
Introduction 1. The natural resource and right to development dilemma Part 1: Normative Considerations on Natural Resource Sovereignty and the Right to Development 2. Sustainable right to development governance of natural resources in Africa 3. Loss, anguish and postponement: The story of African development, natural resource ownership and the paradox of waiting 4. Rationale for Africa’s ‘legitimate’ ownership of her natural resources 5. Resource constitutionalism for socio-economic development in Africa’s petrostates: Re-imagining prior-informed consent 6. Peoples’ right to natural resources in Africa and state sovereignty: A quest for equilibrium 7. Colonial extraction of natural resource and the impact on the right to development in Africa Part 2: Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources 8. Issues of sovereignty over natural resources in Africa 9. Rethinking natural resource ownership and the realisation of the right to development for indigenous peoples in Africa 10. Ownership of natural resources and the right to development for African indigenous peoples 11. Assessing the impact of water policies and practices on the RTD within the tourism industry in Africa Part 3: Collective Benefit-Sharing of Natural Resources in Sustaining the Right to Development 12. Sustainable Development Goals and the bumpy road to 2030 in Ethiopia: The challenges of land grabbing 13. Freedom from want and the constitutional right to development in Ethiopia: Urban Productive Safety Net Programme–The case of Addis Ababa 14. Corporate social responsibility and the right to development in local communities: The case of the Democratic Republic of Congo 15. Laws on natural resources ownership in Ghana: A perceived hindrance to community development 16. Policy implications of the right to development through the Mining Charter of South Africa 17. Impact of artisanal and small scale gold mining on livelihood in Mutasa District of Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe Conclusion 18. Towards a resilient development future in Africa
Carol Chi Ngang is a Researcher at the Free State Centre for Human Rights, University of the Free State, South Africa and Senior Lecturer at the National University of Lesotho, and is also the editor of Insights into Policies and Practices on the Right to Development (2020) Serges Djoyou Kamga is a Professor of Law at the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs, University of South Africa and is the author of The Right to Development in the African Human Rights System (Routledge, 2018)
