2.1 Changing Perspectives: Reframing the ASM Debate

development plans. This approach would be inclusive of the impacted communities.

For an ambitious government, EI sector activities can be leveraged to generate economic development that may be wider and longer lasting than the EI sector activities themselves. This includes beneficial impacts that may well be regional as well as national in character. In combination, they provide an important justification for supporting the EI sector in spite of the challenges that this presents to many governments (discussed in section 2.3).

Local benefits are considered at greater length in chapter 9 of the Sourcebook. We also note the shifts in thinking about mining, particularly the sector known as artisanal and smallscale mining (ASM), that have taken place in recent years. These create the potential to open opportunities for the inclusion of this sector in overall plans for the development of the mining sector in resource-rich countries (see box 2.1).

Grounds for optimism about the likely success of these linkages to development policy are provided by the following considerations:

The contribution of investors

Resources-for-infrastructure transactions underline an important trend over the past decade: the growing participation of private and other corporate investors in promoting integrated sustainable development at local regional levels, locating their transformative investments in a development context. An early lead in this was taken by Chinese companies in Africa (see discussion in chapter 9). However, industry associations in the oil, gas, and mining sectors remain active in developing guidelines, toolkits, and manuals for and with their members to raise the level of best practice in their operations, especially in terms of their social and environmental impacts.

A failure to do so is increasingly perceived by investors as creating a risk to their “social license to operate.” To counter this, they will typically seek to harness the synergies between public and private investment to ensure that EI projects in poor regions contribute to optimizing the development potential of local, national, and regional communities affected by these transformative projects. This requires industry and government to engage in avoidance, mitigation, and amelioration of environmental and social damage. At the very least, community consultations must occur.4 Oil, gas, and mining companies could also demonstrate good corporate citizenship through policies of local sourcing. The Sourcebook includes examples of their willingness to engage with host governments in maximizing social benefits from EI activities.

Discovery and development

Recent research has documented the frequency and scale of new discoveries of hydrocarbons and minerals and the role of enhanced development in expanding known resource reserves and supplementing them with, for example, shale gas and oil (Gelb, Kaiser, and Vinuela 2012). Further, as a result of technological changes, the market value of known natural resources can change by making them easier to extract or by increasing the amounts that may be

Box 2.1 Changing Perspectives: Reframing the ASM Debate

Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) has undergone reframing by the international community over the past few decades (see chapter 9). This affects the understanding of what ASM is, how it is organized, and what type of activity it undertakes. The new framing has had significant impacts on approaches to resolving challenges that face this subsector, leading to a variety of different approaches. For example, if one considers ASM a poverty-alleviation strategy, then approaches typically focus on it as a development opportunity, a practice in need of a policing exercise, or one requiring ways to transition practitioners out of mining and into economic alternatives. By contrast, if ASM is considered a viable economic activity, then the focus of the agenda becomes increasing productivity through technology, access to finance, and better organizational representation. Policy choices may cover a range of these perspectives depending on the national ASM demographic. The first question to ask is whether the people wish to remain as miners or to leave for opportunities elsewhere. New research suggests that many miners now consider such mining a profession (Hilson 2010; Hayes and Perks 2011). This has implications for the design of policy.

The challenge of the ASM sector becomes a question of how one sees ASM in the first place: as an opportunity or a problem.

22 OIL, GAS, AND MINING