Resource-for-Infrastructure Agreements as an Alternative Conception of Market Capitalism. The Sicomines Agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International development, grade: 75%, University of Sussex, course: Environment, Development and Policy (MA), language: English, abstract: This paper examines the Sicomines Agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It analyses how 'Resource-for-Infrastructure' agreements highlight the limitations of the 'Corporate Social Responsibility' theory in providing an alternative conception of market capitalism. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has an abundance of natural resources, containing over 80 million hectares of arable land, and access to over 1,100 minerals and metals. However, in 2013, the United Nations Development Programme¿s (UNDP) Human Development Index (HDI) ranked the DRC 187th out of 188 states, with a score of 0.304 HDI. Therefore, due to its abundance of resources, the DRC has the potential to become a prominent driver of African growth, but currently remains one of the world¿s poorest states. Amongst other factors, the DRC¿s abundance of natural resources has played a central role in its continued economic and political insecurity. Like many resource-rich developing states, Western and Chinese multinational companies have intervened in the state¿s extractive mining sectors. Although resource-based growth has led to a number of successes, their interventions, in some cases, have not led to positive economic trends for developing states. This is commonly referred to as the resource curse for developing states that are resource-rich. Today, in light of the economic, social and environmental controversies caused from natural resource mining in the developing world, mining companies, and their associated banks, provide Resource-for-Infrastructure (RFI) agreements.