Africa’s natural resources provide a unique opportunity to foster human and economic development. However, abundant endowments of natural resources do not necessarily lead to equivalent levels of prosperity, broad-based development and resource-based industrialization. One key obstacle preventing African countries from realizing this potential is poor governance.

This Information Brief discusses the need for a new developmental approach to natural resource governance in Africa, with an emphasis on an inclusive, participatory and owner-based socio-economic transformation of African countries.