Short Abstract:

This roundtable brings together an Ivoirian-UK project team working on the politics and power of integrating local community voices in policy-making on natural resource management in Côte d'Ivoire.

Long Abstract:

Multilayered and top-down development policies form the basis of state approaches to implementing development. However, there are often conflicting priorities between international, national, and local actors, with states lodged in contention with local communities. Inequalities and inequities in distribution, access and management of natural resources is at the heart of many development problems in the Global South. This roundtable brings together a project team working on the politics and power of integrating local community voices in policy-making on natural resource management in Côte d'Ivoire. The history of natural resource management is steeped in colonial and postcolonial power contentions. Ideological and material precedence of western power and structures over global order and development goals/policies/approaches marginalise alternative ways of being and doing development, and Global South politics must contend with and overcome this limitation. However, the importance of peoples' voices articulating their experiences in negotiating the relationship with natural resources in their communities/countries is still not full acknowledged or incorporated into policy decision-making. This is despite the participation of local actors in their own development outcomes, and policies designed to enhance them, is widely being understood as vital, for both ethical and instrumental reasons. UK and Côte d'Ivoire based researchers, as well as civil society members, will participate in the roundtable, which aims to interrogate the realities of agency, knowledge and governance in pursuing development goals in the Anthropocene.