Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy
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Item The chasm between rising incomes and human development and its potential for conflict in resource intensive countries(University of Ghana, 2015-04-17) Appiah, S.Sub-Saharan Africa is home to much of the world's mineral reserves. South Africa produces 77% of the world's platinum and 46% of its chromite. The Democratic Republic of Congo produces 53% of the world's cobalt and 21 percent of the world's industrial diamonds. Angola is the fifth producer of diamonds in the world and Nigeria is the world's tenth largest producer of oil. Until the 1990s, this region did not generate much revenue from this wealth. This situation changed in the latter part of the 1990s. The 20 resource intensive countries in the region started gaining more money for their extractive exports partly as a result of increasing demand from China. This has contributed to what is now over a decade of consistent high economic growth. This has never before happened in the region's history. The extractives industry now produces about one-third of the GOP of the region and the 20 resource intensive countries contribute 79.6% of the region's GOP. The problem is that the economic growth has not translated into better human development in resource intensive countries-rather it seems to have widened the inequality gap. The 2005 United Nation's report on the World's Social Situation stated that, "violence associated with NATIONAL and international acts of terrorism should be viewed in the context of social inequality and disintegration". It added, "Violence is more common where inequalities are greater". Th is paper assesses the possibility of increased conflicts in the region if the regions extractives driven growth is not accompanied with better human development for its growing youthful population