Challenging formal accountability processes in community natural resource management in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Challenging formal accountability processes in community natural resource management in Sub-Saharan Africa Regis Musavengane
. Pius Siakwah
© Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract Africa is endowed with vast natural resources. It is equally labelled a cursed continent due to a plethora of conflicts emanating from the use and sharing of gains from these natural resources. For the past decades, accountability has been thought of as an anecdote to natural resources conflicts. However, these challenges have persisted across the SubSaharan African region. Using Ghana and South African communities, the study revisits the relationship between accountability of natural resources and community development with the aim to strengthen accountability processes in Africa. The paper revealed that accountability in natural resources management should extend beyond reports and opinions of the technocrats, bureaucrats, experts and political elites. We argue that accountability should be participatory, inclusive, and embody elements of trust and social justices. It therefore proposes the adoption of negotiated accountability, to strengthen the governance of natural resources in Africa.
R. Musavengane (&) Department of Tourism, School of Tourism and Hospitality, College of Business and Economics, University of Johannesburg, Bunting Road Campus, PO Box 524, Johannesburg 2006, South Africa e-mail: [email protected] P. Siakwah University of Ghana, Institute of African Studies, Legon, Ghana e-mail: [email protected]
Negotiated accountability should holistically address four main accountability elements: the normative, relational, decisional and behavioural element. Keywords Negotiated accountability · Governance · Participatory approach · Inclusive community-based natural resources management · Sub-Saharan Africa
Introduction Accountability has become of prominence in the twenty first century to ensure effective and efficient allocation and utilisation of resources (i.e. natural, economic, physical, and human) (Schillemans 2015; Yeboah-Assiamah et al. 2016; Musavengane and Simatele 2016). Despite its importance, there are often challenges in managing these natural resources since the concept of accountability is ambiguous and there is a disconnection between theory and practice (Kyamusugulwa 2013; Siakwah 2017). There has been, however, a global transition from top-down approaches in managing natural resources to seemingly localised ones such as collaboratives and cooperatives tactics (Mu¨ller 2012; Burgos and Mertens 2017; Le 2017; Ebhuoma and Simatele 2017). At the core of these ‘novel approaches’ is accountability, one of the principles regarded as a measure of good governance (Benson 2012; Larsen et al. 2014; Brewer et al. 2017). It is defined
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differently. Accountability can be defined as “(a) the allocation and acceptance of responsibility for decisions and actions and (b) the demonstration of whether and how these responsibilities have been met” (Lockwood et al.
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