Below are recent reports commissioned mainly by NGOs and public policy/academic
research institutes.
A golden opportunity?: How Tanzania is failing to benefit from gold mining
Report for Tanzanian NGOs (October 2008)
This report is an analysis of gold mining and tax payments in Tanzania. Although Tanzania is one of Africa’s largest gold exporters, ordinary people benefit little, since the government has implemented tax laws that are overly favourable to mining companies and because of the policies of those companies themselves, notably AngloGold Ashanti and Barrick.
The crisis in Agricultural Aid: How aid has contributed to hunger
Paper for ActionAid (September 2008)
This paper is an analysis of overseas aid to agriculture, showing how aid levels have dramatically declined over the past two decades, how the focus of aid spending is not geared to the needs of poor farmers and how aid has been used to push a neo-liberal economic model of agriculture that has increased poverty and hunger.
Precious metal: The impact of Anglo Platinum on poor communities in Limpopo, South Africa
Report for ActionAid (March 2008)
This report analyses the operations of the world’s largest platinum producer, Anglo Platinum, a company majority-owned by the British mining giant, Anglo American. The findings suggest company activities have contributed to water pollution and depriving communities of agricultural land while community protests are often met by police brutality and company legal action.
Fanning the flames: The role of British mining companies in conflict and the violation of human rights
Report for War on Want (November 2007)
This report documents the impacts of the largest British mining companies – including BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Xstrata, Rio Tinto and Vedanta – in around twenty countries. It shows their complicity in human rights violations, the exacerbation of conflict and environmental destruction at the same time as making record profits.
Deadly combination: The role of Southern governments and the World Bank in the rise of hunger
Report for Norwegian Church Aid and other European NGOs (October 2007)
This detailed report is an analysis of the impact on hunger-prone people of the economic reforms promoted by the World Bank and IMF over the past 15 years. It contains a synthesis report plus case studies on Ethiopia, Malawi and Zambia. It argues that both World Bank liberalisation policies and government intervention policies are, in their messy, unstrategic combination, serving to increase hunger.
Anglo American: The alternative report
Report for War on Want (August 2007)
This report reveals the role of the British mining company, Anglo American, in human rights abuses around the world, along with the companies in its business group, which include AngloGold Ashanti, De Beers and Anglo Platinum.
The good, the bad and the ugly: A decade of Labour’s arms exports
Report for Saferworld (May 2007)
This report reviews the British government’s arms exports policies since 1997, showing how it continues to arm persistent human rights abusers and states enduring conflicts, how the arms trade remains mired in secrecy, and the foreign policy benefits of arms exports.
Arming and alarming? China’s arms exports and military relations with Africa
Chapter in The new Sinosphere: China in Africa (IPPR, London, 2006)
This analysis documents China’s arms exports and military relations with African countries, especially human rights abusers, and offers reasons for China’s increasing involvement on the continent in rivalry with the US and Britain.
Gold Rush: The impact of gold mining on poor people in Obuasi, Ghana
Report for ActionAid (October 2006)
This investigative report from interviews and research in Ghana exposes the effects of mining by AngloGold Ashanti, a subsidiary of UK company Anglo-American, in Africa’s biggest gold mine. Village streams are being polluted and illegal miners shot or threatened, while the company claims it is committed to ‘corporate social responsibility’.
Poor Company: The harsh impact of British business on poor people
Briefing for UK NGOs (July 2006)
This report documents how over a dozen UK companies, including several household names, are abusing human rights around the world.
Designing conflict-sensitive trade policy
Report for International Institute for Sustainable Development (January 2006)
This analysis argues that OECD countries are completely failing to design their trade policies to take conflict into account, and makes recommendations on how they should.
Also available as a chapter in Oli Brown et al (ed), Trade, Aid and Security: An Agenda for peace and development (Earthscan, 2007)
Trade Invaders: The WTO and developing countries ‘Right to Protect’
Report for ActionAid (December 2005)
This report, written for ActionAid’s trade campaign, shows how developed countries are pushing trade liberalisation on developing countries at the World Trade Organisation, especially in the negotiations on services, agriculture and manufactured goods. Rather, developing countries need trade agreements to provide greater ‘policy space’ to pursue strategies in their own interests.
17 ways the European Commission is pushing trade liberalisation on poor countries
Report for the European Trade Justice Movement (November 2005)
This report, written to support public campaigning in Europe, documents the numerous ways in which the European Commission is pushing developing countries to further open their economies to Western corporations.
