Global Pressures in Policymaking: Insights from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and Ghana’s Petroleum Industry

Historically, natural resources have been instrumental in conditioning and shaping public policy outcomes. Oil, gas, and mining projects have driven economic growth, provided employment opportunities, and injected capital into infrastructure development. However, scepticism abounds concerning Africa’s natural resources and development transformation. Whereas some resource-rich economies, particularly Norway, have made fortunes and transformed their economies through an efficient management of their natural resource revenues, the same cannot be said of most African countries. The question then arises as to the lessons that can be learned from best global practices as championed by international agencies so that African economies do not miss out on this wave of resource boom. In addition, how do these policy prescriptions fit into the African context in the wake of attempts by transnational actors such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to push their pet policy ideas and preferences? This chapter examines how policymakers and practitioners in Ghana and other African countries engage with standards and benchmarks established by transnational actors to promote good governance in the extractive sector.