For many developing countries, the extraction of natural resources has been a blessing, as their export can provide urgently needed development capital. For others, however, resource wealth has been a curse, as their population still faces extreme poverty and they have been haunted by corruption, government failure and violent conflict. While political and institutional deficits have been widely cited as sources for economic failure and violent conflict, there is still a lack of understanding and empirical study on the impact of governance factors on the resource-conflict dynamic.

In response to this gap, BICC initiated the ‘Resource Conflict Monitor’ project. The research which received financial support of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) studies the effects of resource governance on the relationship between natural resources and violent conflict. All in all, it compares data on 90 resource dependent countries to test how a better understanding of the way in which natural resources are governed could contribute to conflict prevention and transformation measures.

The website: www.resource-conflict-monitor.org gives free access to the newly developed ‘resource governance index’ for 90 low- and middle income countries over the past decade.

The event will take place on 12 March, 12:00hrs at BICC, An der Elisabethkirche 25, 53113 Bonn

For more information please contact: Susanne Heinke, spokesperson BICC Phone: ++49-228-911 96 44 E-mail: pr@bicc.de