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Paper short abstract:

Large-scale mining projects may have adverse impacts on public health. This paper applies Q-methodology to identify policy preferences of different stakeholders from government, the private sector and civil society for regulating public health in large-scale mining projects in Burkina Faso.

Paper long abstract:

Large-scale resource extraction may lead to significant negative externalities on the environment, social well-being and public health of affected communities. Negative environmental impacts of extractive projects are regularly considered through mandatory environmental impact assessments, however, public health impacts frequently remain unaddressed due to a lack of legal requirements, particularly in Africa. While policy instruments are available to mitigate negative externalities on public health - the most eminent being the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) – the instrument of HIA has not yet been established. We use Q-methodology to identify policy preferences of government, private sector and civil society stakeholders for regulating public health in large-scale mining projects in Burkina Faso. We identify two broader stakeholder perspectives that reveal an overarching consensus on the need to address health impacts of mining projects. Both perspectives reject industry self-regulation and broadly agree on introducing HIA as a regulatory instrument, but also point to different priorities among stakeholders. We develop a conceptual framework to map stakeholders’ shared and divergent policy preferences and focal points. The findings can help to initiate a policy dialogue on safeguarding public health in large-scale mining and may provide guidance for policy makers to implement public health policy reform.