Supporting Good Governance of Extractive Industries in Politically Hostile Settings: Rethinking Approaches and Strategies

This discussion paper is the product of a workshop entitled “Supporting Good Governance of Extractive Industries in Politically Hostile Settings: A View from Sub-Saharan Africa,” organized by the Oxford Martin School (OMS) Programme on African Governance and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) and supporting research. The workshop brought together global and local researchers and practitioners with a wide range of experience with extractives governance, particularly, though not exclusively, in the sub-Saharan African region. The meeting built on prior research and discussions held as part of CCSI’s project on the Politics of Extractive Industries, dedicated to supporting the field of actors working to improve the governance of extractive industries (henceforth, the “GEI field”) in their efforts to think and work in more politically savvy ways. By sharing some initial insights from this work, we hope to contribute to broader conversations on how to improve practical approaches to supporting good governance and development in a range of political settings, including some of the most repressive and challenging

النموذج الاقتصادي في مرحلة ما بعد الحرب في أنغولا: هل يمكن استقاء الدروس منه لليبيا؟

تناقش هذه الورقة البحثية تجربة أنغولا مع إعادة الإعمار بعد الحرب، وتحديدًا نموذج الاقتصاد السياسي الذي اتّبعه الحزب الحاكم، أي الحركة الشعبية لتحرير أنغولا، في عهد الرئيس خوسيه إدواردو دوس سانتوس. فتستعرض السياق الذي قام مباشرةً بعد الحرب والظروف التي أتاحت للحكومة اتّباع نهجها الخاص، بما في ذلك الطفرة النفطية والانتصار العسكري على المتمردين في عام 2002 والشراكة الاستراتيجية مع الصين. بعد ذلك، يلقي البحث نظرةً على السياسات المتّبعة في حقبة الازدهار، بما فيها محاولات التنويع الاقتصادي وطريقة حصول النخبة الأوليغارشية على مكافآت غير متكافئة خلال هذه الفترة. ثم يخلص إلى أن معظم الفوائد الشعبية لحقبة الازدهار كانت فعليًا عابرة وأن أنغولا واجهت بعد عام 2014 الكثير من التحديات التاريخية، السياسية والاقتصادية على حدٍّ سواء، التي عانت منها البلاد لعقود طويلة. وفي حين بقي السلام سائدًا في أنغولا منذ مطلع القرن الحالي، إلا أن نموذجها السياسي والاقتصادي لم ينجح في تحقيق الرخاء العام، لا بل يتعرّض اليوم للضغط نتيحة السخط الاجتماعي واستنفار حركة المعارضة

China Returns to Africa: Anatomy of an Expansive Engagement

This paper presents a scoping analysis of the main contours of relations, offering an anatomy of key dimensions of an expansive Chinese engagement in the continent that remains dynamic

Transnational uncivil society networks: kleptocracy’s global fightback against liberal activism

What is the global social context for the insertion of kleptocratic elites into the putatively liberal international order? Drawing on cases from our work on Eurasia and Africa, we sketch a concept of ‘transnational uncivil society’ which we contrast to ‘transnational activist networks’ (Keck and Sikkink, 1998). While the latter denotes the liberalising practices of global civil society, the former suggests a specific series of clientelistic relations across borders which open space for uncivil elites. This distinction animates a growing line of conflict in global politics. These kleptocrats eject liberal activists from their own territories and create new spaces to whitewash their own reputations and build their own transnational networks. To do so they hire political consultants and reputation managers, engage in public philanthropy, and forge new relationships with major global institutions. We show how these strategies of reputation-laundering are neither illicit nor marginal, but very much a product of the actors, institutions and markets generated by the liberal international order. We compare and contrast the scope and purpose of civil and uncivil society networks, we explore the increasing globalization of Eurasian and African elites as a concerted strategy to distance themselves from associations with their political oppression and kleptocracy in their home countries, and recast themselves as productive and respected cosmopolitans

Long-term stability of the oxygen pulse curve during maximal exercise

INTRODUCTION: Exercise oxygen pulse (O2 pulse), a surrogate for stroke volume and arteriovenous oxygen difference, has emerged as an important variable obtained during cardiopulmonary exercise testing. OBJECTIVES: We hypothesized that the O2 pulse curve pattern response to a maximal cycling ramp protocol exhibits a stable linear pattern in subjects reevaluated under the same clinical conditions. METHODS: We retrospectively studied 100 adults (80 males), mean age at baseline of 59 + 12 years, who performed two cardiopulmonary exercise testings (median interval was 15 months), for clinical and/or exercise prescription reasons. The relative O2 pulse was calculated by dividing its absolute value by body weight. Subjects were classified into quintiles of relative O2 pulse. Cardiopulmonary exercise testing results and the O2 pulse curve pattern, expressed by its slope and intercept, were compared among quintiles of relative O2 pulse at both cardiopulmonary exercise testings. RESULTS: After excluding the first minute of CPX (rest-exercise transition), the relative O2 pulse curve exhibited a linear increase, as demonstrated by high coefficients of determination (R² from 0.75 to 0.90; p<0.05 for all quintiles). Even though maximum oxygen uptake and relative O2 pulse were significantly higher in the second cardiopulmonary exercise testing for each quintile of relative O2 pulse (p<0.05 for all comparisons), no differences were found when slopes and intercepts were compared between the first and second cardiopulmonary exercise testings (p>0.05 for all comparisons; except for intercept in the 5th quintile). CONCLUSION: Excluding the rest-exercise transition, the relative O2 pulse exhibited a stable linear increase throughout maximal exercise in adults that were retested under same clinical conditions

Supporting Good Governance of Extractive Industries in Politically Hostile Settings: Rethinking Approaches and Strategies

CCSI set out to explore why some political settings might be more hostile ground for existing approaches to GEI reforms and consider how practitioners might work more effectively in such settings. To this end, CCSI drew on preliminary desk research, a range of practitioner interviews, an expert meeting co-convened with the Oxford Martin School Programme on African Governance in 2020, and a follow-up meeting around the rise of authoritarian behaviors among governments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussion paper, Supporting Good Governance of Extractive Industries in Politically Hostile Settings: Rethinking Approaches and Strategies, by Leila Kazemi and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, captures some preliminary reflections on these issues. Moving beyond observations of the discrete challenges posed by “constraints on civic space,” “authoritarianism,” “kleptocracy,” “state fragility” or “state capture,” the analysis seeks to more systematically shed light on how such circumstances relate to each other and shape outcomes of GEI interventions. The authors suggest that when realities on the ground depart significantly from three implicit assumptions underlying the general theories of change animating much of the GEI field’s work to date – namely, that host contexts are characterized by 1) fairly open/democratic governance; 2) leaders who prioritize broad social welfare over narrower interests; and 3) functional and independent government agencies and authorities – traditional approaches to trying to improve governance and development outcomes through technical assistance and efforts to foster transparency, accountability and participation are likely to yield little progress and may even prove counterproductive. We discuss how progress can be hamstrung by the mismatch between such assumptions and realities characterized by more closed and repressive governments, powerful actors whose interests lie with personal or particularistic gains rather than social welfare, and formal institutions that are weak or subject to interference. We also share expert recommendations on how GEI practitioners might improve their impact by recognizing such mismatches and focusing on pursuing governance and development goals through the specific openings and constraints of a particular PHS

A inter-relação entre a periodontite e a doença intestinal inflamatória crónica

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre no Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde Egas MonizA doença intestinal inflamatória abrange várias entidades clínicas tendo como característica principal a inflamação crónica do tubo digestivo, sendo a colite ulcerosa e a doença de Crohn as formas mais frequentes. Sendo uma patologia crónica, a doença intestinal inflamatória pode afetar diferentes órgãos e sistemas do organismo, para além do trato gastrointestinal. A periodontite é um processo inflamatório crónico multifactorial como resposta À agressão das bactérias do biofilme dentário, podendo estar associado a outras doenças inflamatórias crónicas devido ao facto de ser foco de inflamação sistémica. De entre as diversas manifestações extra-intestinais associadas à doença intestinal inflamatória, ao nível da cavidade oral destacam-se a cárie dentária, lesões na mucosa e a periodontite. A periodontite e a doença intestinal inflamatória foram abordadas em vários estudos e algumas teorias foram consideradas, no entanto, os mecanismos patogénicos associados às citocinas pro-inflamatórias parece ser a principal razão para relacionar as duas entidades clínicas. Contudo, são necessários mais estudos clínicos e investigações científicas que comprovem esta associação e que esclareçam quais os mecanismos exatos de correlação entre as duas doenças