Exploring the impacts of gold mining in Tanzania
Dr. Judy Muthuri and Lauren McCarthy have just returned from a research trip to Tanzania where they conducted a series of interviews with various actors looking at how ‘systems of governance’ influence poverty alleviation, especially when gold mining is involved.
As part of the European Commission’s GLOBAL VALUE project, we and our partners from Saarland University (Germany), Central European University (Hungary) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (Tanzania) spent two weeks exploring the gold mining sector in Tanzania.
We are interested in how ‘systems of governance’ influence poverty alleviation, especially when gold mining is involved. What this means in practice is that we interviewed individuals from the government, international NGOs, local NGOs and gold mining companies to ask their views on the drivers for responsible business practices in gold mining. How do external trends (e.g. the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) and internal trends (e.g. new laws on mining tax) change the way gold companies do business in Tanzania? How do different institutions work together? Or are there some tensions impossible to overcome?
You can read more on their experiences at the Nottingham University blog.