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On the Mechanics of the Natural Resource Curse: Information and Local Elite Behavior in Mozambique

Project Info

 

Principal Investigators

Alex Armand (Universidad de Navarra)
Antonio Cruz (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane)
Pedro Vicente (Nova SBE)

Collaboration

Alex Coutts (Nova SBE)

Project Coordination

Inês Vilela

Funding

3ie – Transparency and Accountability Initiative

Partnerships

@Verdade Newspaper

 

About this Project

 

Mozambique discovered substantial natural resources in recent years. Known gas reserves in the Rovuma basin have the potential to transform Mozambique into a global player in Liquefied Natural Gas exports. Being a recent democracy, and with relatively weak institutions, Mozambique also faces considerable risks of resource and revenue mismanagement in the future, particularly since media independence and penetration are low, and the level of political accountability is not improving.

This research project will evaluate the distribution of information about the management of the newly discovered natural gas in the Rovuma basin, and the holding of citizen meetings to deliberate on the main priorities for spending the revenues from these resources. Through the widespread provision of information about the management of natural resources in the country the resource curse can possibly be counteracted.

On the 6th of March, NOVAFRICA (Mozambique) in partnership with Eduardo Mondlane University (Mozambique), and the University of Navarra (Spain) organized a workshop on Transparency and Accountability Initiatives on the Extractives Industry in Mozambique as a prospective initiative for the design of this research project. You can find more information about this workshop here.

Please read the working paper here.

Contributing to SDGs: