Preface

The global political economy is in a period of profound restructuring and reordering, exacerbated by the simultaneous rise of the BRICS countries and decline of the PIIGS of the euro zone, which have now been joined by Cyprus. [...] New trends in the twenty-first century are the rise of the global South, the growth of South-South relations in trade, energy and politics, and the growing role of emerging societies and sovereign wealth funds.” In early 2013, PricewaterhouseCoopers suggested that “China is projected to overtake the US as the largest economy by 2017 in purchasing power parity terms and by 2027 in market exchange r. [...] Hence the focus of the latest Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme—the rise of the South.1 In 2011, participants at the first Ottawa Forum hosted by the North-South Institute (NSI) started with such assumptions to analyze and anticipate multilateral development cooperation in a changing global order. [...] Hence the advocacy for “developmental states” by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, which has so far led to the articulation of the evolving Africa Mining Vision that was adopted by heads of state at a 2009 African Union summit and is linked to the Mining Policy Framework tabled to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in 2011 by the 48-member Intergovernmental F. [...] Clear objectives for all stakeholders must include the improvement of transparency and accountability, promotion of free, prior, and informed consent protocols, reinvestment of natural resource revenues into social services and poverty reduction for local mining communities and the larger populations of host countries, and diversification of economic development in resource-rich African countries.