Fuelling the World – Failing the Region?

We are witnessing a new scramble for Africa’s oil and gas in the ‘new’ Gulf of Guinea. On the other hand, many of the region’s countries remain fragile, badly governed and poor. While the region’s oil is ‘fuelling the world’ it is completely failing the large majority of its citizens. Going beyond narrow conceptions of the ‘resource curse’, this book analyses the challenges the countries along the West and Central African coast face in translating resource wealth into stability, peace, economic growth, social justice and democratic governance. It assesses existing initiatives for making oil and gas work for the benefi t of the people and suggests new, innovative solutions to the ‘resource curse’.