Inclusive ‘Guinéisation’?: the origins, design, and implementation of Local Content Policies in Guinea’s mining sector

Wilhelm, Cindy (2024) Inclusive ‘Guinéisation’?: the origins, design, and implementation of Local Content Policies in Guinea’s mining sector. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Low-income resource-dependent countries face several governance challenges. The opportunities for resource-rich countries to make the most of their resource wealth by overcoming negative impacts and catalysing resource revenues and investment into tangible socio-economic benefits for host communities are limited. One governance tool to generate inclusive socio-economic benefits from extractive activities that has become increasingly popular are Local Content Policies (LCPs). LCPs are a type of industrial policy that are developed to create ‘linkages’ and ‘spillover’ effects through the maximization of local employment and procurement within and beyond the value chain of industrial mining activities. Guinea, in West Africa, is a resource-dependent low-income country with the world’s largest known deposits of bauxite, and where LCPs have become a popular mining sector reform tool embraced by the previous administration under President Alpha Condé (2010-2021). The Condé administration promoted LCPs to achieve ‘Guinéisation’, with the aim that the mining industry would evolve into a dynamic and diversified sector by Guineans for Guineans. This thesis is based on research between 2018-2023 in the field of resource governance. It engages with three papers that examine the design and implementation of mining sector reforms through the case study of local content policies in Guinea’s bauxite industry. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to an understanding to what extent local content policies constitute a mining sector reform tool that generate inclusive resource-based development. The critical engagement with this body of work examines the key theories and concepts, embedded in extractivism theory, local content, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The findings and conceptual debates that are analysed in this thesis highlight contributions for academics and practitioners. This thesis shows that extractivism theory allows to understand why resource-rich low-income countries struggle with inclusive resource-based development, why mining reforms like LCPs are designed, and why the impacts of mining sector reforms like local content policies remain limited. This approach contributes to academic knowledge generation as it provides a unique and holistic approach to analyse LCPs and has pushed the boundaries of local content literature. This research also generates impact beyond the academic circle, with recommendations for practitioners among policy makers and industry stakeholders.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
Depositing User:	Nicola Veasy
Date Deposited:	11 Jul 2024 10:33
Last Modified:	11 Jul 2024 10:33
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/95870
DOI:

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