Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 12/2013

Extractive Industries and Peacebuilding in Afghanistan: The Role of Social Accountability

Sadaf Lakhani

October 2013

United States Institute of Peace

Abstract

While Afghanistan’s economy has experienced strong growth in the past decade, declining levels of overseas development assistance beginning in 2014 are expected to substantially reduce the country’s economic growth rate, with attendant political implications. Commercially exploitable mineral deposits in Afghanistan could generate billions of dollars in income and be an engine of growth of the future economy. Extractive industries in fragile countries often undermine statebuilding by either sparking, sustaining, or contributing to a relapse of violent conflict. In Afghanistan, while mineral extraction has not contributed significantly to the formal economy, minerals have historically been linked to various forms of conflict. A weak and deteriorating formal governance environment in Afghanistan—with weak regulation capacity, poor compliance monitoring, and pervasive corruption—may mean that local communities are more susceptible to the negative social and environmental effects of mining operations, as well as to real or perceived perceptions of injustices in the distribution of benefits.