Social Progress in Mining-Dependent Countries: Analysing the Role of Resource Governance in Delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Summary

• Looking at analysis of 41 selected social-economic metrics including neo-natal mortality, adult literacy, and access to electricity amongst others, findings show good progress across three quarters, with the greatest progress made in health and well-being, access to quality education, clean water, sanitation and more affordable and clean energy.
• The biggest relative improvements were made in Bolivia, Botswana, Indonesia, Ghana, and Peru.
• Most mining-dependent countries continue to close the socio-economic performance gap with non-resource-dependent countries. This represents a counterpoint to the ‘resource curse’ – a widely held perception that mining is likely to impede the economic and social progress of host populations. 
• However, governance matters. The research strongly suggests that the higher the quality of governance, the stronger the socio-economic progress observed. It also confirms that social progress tends to have long gestation periods, with a clear time lag between the designing of a policy, implementation, and resulting development outcomes.
• Having mining regulations and frameworks is an insufficient condition for good socio-economic outcomes – effective implementation is key. While many mining-dependent countries have invested time and effort in adopting clear and modern legislative frameworks, actual implementation is proving more challenging.
• A stable enabling environment has the strongest positive relationship with good socio-economic outcomes. Countries that are more peaceful, have lower levels of corruption, and a vocal and active civil society with sufficient civic space are better able to translate natural resources into social progress.