October 19, 2009
Ghana’s Oil: Black Gold or Fools Gold?
By Lawrence MacDonald
Oil and Africa. Boon or bust? In CGD’s first Global Prosperity Wonkcast I interview senior fellow Todd Moss on his innovative proposal for managing Ghana’s anticipated $1 billion per year oil windfall: money to the people. Subscribe to the podcast if you have iTunes; read Moss’s executive memo to Ghana’s President John Atta Mills, or get the full story in Saving Ghana from Its Oil: The Case for Direct Cash Distribution.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
October 28, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Todd’s interview serves as a reminder that even though oil has the potential to help poor people in developing countries, that isn’t always the result.
A recent podcast by NPR’s Planet Money “The Paradox Of Oil” examines Angola’s management of oil and compares the impact of this precious resource on an Angolan boy versus an American expat. At the end of the podcast, the host pledged to cover oil and poverty in Africa in upcoming episodes. I know that I’ll be listening!
January 5, 2010 at 7:32 pm
As someone who has been struggling for years for oil revenue sharing in my homeland Venezuela and would have so benefitted from an example of it in Iraq, I sincerely believe you let the responsible too easily off the hook by accepting that “The mechanics to redistribute in cash oil revenues to its citizens an active war environment was too daunting… too difficult.” There was just not the political will that by definition is absent from those eager to manage the oil revenues on behalf of the citizens.