The drive to invest large sums of money in mining and infrastructure projects in lower- income countries can lead to negative consequences for local communities, for governments and for investors unless accompanied by meaningful projects to promote human-centered development and security. There are ample examples where large investments have led to negative social outcomes for local communities including violent responses.
US-led initiatives are mobilizing unprecedented amounts of capital from the public and private sectors to diversify the sourcing and processing of minerals critical to the creation of climate-friendly economies and meeting demand triggered by technological innovations.
To ensure communities impacted by these investments prosper, community members must be full participants in designing human-centered projects with the aim of improving their lives and livelihoods. The provisioning of quality healthcare and education are typically high in the priorities of local communities. If local educational needs are not addressed, capital investments in the extractive sectors run the risk of alienating youth. This article reviews the literature largely with a focus on African countries to highlight sound practices that enables schools to become instruments of peace, conflict resolution, social cohesion and healthy behaviors, highlighting the best practices for obtaining positive outcomes and avoiding negative consequences.
Introduction
Sound social and financial investments that empower educational systems especially at the community level are critical for assuring that the rapidly growing global extractive industries have positive human development outcomes.
Many low-income countries, which are home to valuable resources needed for the transition to climate friendly economies and the technology sector, often face precarious social, economic and political situations. The least economically developed countries are frequently home to large youth demographic bulges with limited livelihood and quality educational opportunities for youth. [1] (Honwana 2012)
It is not surprising, then, that some of the countries with a very low median age have experienced military coups and/or the recruitment of youth into violent extremist organizations, gangs and armed militias. In Sahelian countries of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the negative perception of Western investments helped to foment military coups and a growth in anti-Western attitudes among the population especially the youth. (Lierl 2023) In countries with large youth demographics, a slide into social fragility and open conflict can be hastened by investments that do not constructively engage local communities through proven participatory methods. Indeed, there are ample instances of youth recruitment into violent actions in the context of substantial investments in extractive operations.
The implementation of evidence-based school interventions is an important component of a constructive response to these challenges; well-planned educational interventions can act as an antidote to youth alienation and as an inoculation against recruitment to engage in violent actions. Effective school-based interventions can succeed in turning negative situations around and contribute greater social cohesion, so that youth feel a sense of belonging and they can contribute constructively to their communities with hopes for prosperous, healthy and fulfilling futures. This study focuses upon education, but it should be noted that socioeconomic interventions in other areas such as health, agriculture, labor markets, and the environment need to involve young people as both actors and subjects, beneficiaries and constructive collaborators. (Homwana 2020)
It is critical that an array of stakeholders – governments, businesses, civil society organizations, community leaders, international organizations and others — apply the lessons learned from successful school-based interventions when making social investments in communities impacted by the 21st Century Mineral Rush. Making schools effective instruments of peace and social cohesion that creates a sense of belonging and counters alienation is an essential ingredient in the menu of approaches that can be undertaken to ensure that local communities benefit from the unprecedented investments in the extractive industries.
Consequences When Investments Go Awry
It is important that stakeholders, including businesses, the governments in nations targeted for investments, countries mobilizing the investment capital and involved international institutions, ensure that impacted local communities prosper, so as to avoid negative social and political outcomes.
Businesses have a vested interest in ensuring human development, as the negative consequences undermine their profits, reputations and may put them in legal jeopardy. It should be noted that European Union legislation going into effect in 2027 would make European companies accountable for the impact of their operations on human rights and the environment inside and outside Europe and require EU countries to “ensure that any victims receive compensation.” (Starcevic 2024)
There are numerous historical examples of such negative outcomes that can at times include violent responses:
One of these was the multiyear conflict in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region that first arose in the early 1990s over tensions between foreign oil corporations and a number of the minority ethnic groups who felt they were being exploited. Youth disaffection has continued to fuel violent acts in this region up to the present. (Ehighelua 2007) (Alozie 2022). In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there is the enduring and troubling human rights and human security situation in areas where international mining companies operate massive copper and cobalt mines (Nkumba 2020) (Kara 2022) (Sanderson 2022).
My own research and writings on the 2017 emergence of the Violent Extremist Organization (VEO), Ahlu Sunna wa Jama, in Mozambique’s northernmost province of Cabo Delgado have demonstrated how youth can be recruited for acts of violence in the context of investment in extractive industries. The drivers of VEO recruitment in Cabo Delgado were many and complex. The distrust of the state due to poor delivery of public services, including education, and the population’s negative experiences with corrupt local state actors were among the drivers; such distrust is common in contexts where VEOs have emerged. (Pirio 2018) The province also experienced large-scale private sector investments in extractive industries that have been accompanied by documented human rights abuses by private and state security forces and by misguided top-down community resettlement schemes that unintentionally fostered resentment and exacerbated local social and political tensions. (Pirio et al 2018) (Pirio et al 2019) (Pirio et al 2020)
The consequences of investments gone awry negatively impacted the people of this province as well as the consortium of petroleum companies ultimately led by France’s Total Energies that was developing the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project. In early 2020 a U.S. government official during the first Trump administration heralded the project as the largest investment ever on the African continent ($30 billion) and the US Export Import Bank approved a $5 billion loan in support of the LNG project
The actions of the VEO insurgency displaced more than 1,000,000 people, disrupted economic and social life in the province and led to the loss of an estimated 4,000 lives, over 40% of whom were civilians. The terrorist attacks unleashed by the VEO forced TotalEnergies to stop its operations in 2021 and declare Force Majeure, which meant that it did not have to adhere to its contractual obligations. TotalEnergies informed the Export Import Bank that it had ceased operations. There is no public information on how much of the $5 billion loan TotalEnergies had already received and how much it is not paying back. Force Majeure was still in place as of the writing of this article. It should also be noted that Mozambique a government security force operating out of the TotalEnergies facility reportedly tortured and killed around 200 innocent men who were falsely accused of belonging to the VEO insurgency. TotalEnergies may have to pay compensation for these deeds. (Pirio and Pittelli 2024) (Perry 2024) (Starcevic 2024)
Poor Quality of Education Can Create Opportunities for Violent Responses
In Cabo Delgado, the poor quality of the educational experience contributed to youth grievances as it led to a sense of alienation and disenchantment with the state’s failure to deliver critical services.
There are numerous examples beyond Cabo Delgado where substandard education practice has led to youth dissatisfaction with the government, contributing to its de-legitimization and increasing the susceptibility of youth to recruitment for violent acts. One example of negative school experiences contributing to violent response comes from Cote d’Ivoire. During post-2010-election violence, political actors took advantage of the deterioration of education services (and increases in school fees) to exploit schools as channels to spread hate-filled ideologies and recruit youth for political violence. (Grob 2016)
Contrarily, as will be shown in a section below, there are important lessons to be learned from places where development initiatives have successfully leveraged schools as vehicles for promoting positive student and community behaviors, including health improvements, constructive civic engagement and greater social cohesion.
The alienation that derives from poor-quality education can also leave youth more susceptible to rebellion and the adoption of narratives of vengeance when violence is used against them. Nigeria’s VEO, Boko Haram, first emerged in 2002 following a peaceful protest by secondary school graduates against the corruption in the education system and their disappointing school experience. The Boko Haram label reflects the fact that some of the initial followers of the original, non-violent, prophetic leader, Mohamed Yussuf, were secondary school graduates who reportedly expressed their anger and frustration by burning their diplomas as a form of protest. Indeed, the moniker “Boko Haram,” which signifies that Western-style “Book” (Boko) Education is forbidden, reflects a deep-seated disillusionment with the educational status quo. However, it was the extrajudicial killing of Mohammed Yusuf in 2009 and armed attacks against Boko Haram members by government security forces that pushed his followers to adopt violence as a tactic. (Pirio 2015) The Boko Haram insurgency continues to commit terrorist violence in and around northeastern Nigeria and has carried out actions in neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
An evaluation of a youth-focused stability program in Somaliland, the Somali Youth Leaders Initiative (SYLI) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also found that a poor-quality educational experience can lead to youth disenchantment with government and greater susceptibility to calls to violence. The evaluation found that increasing access to secondary school education that was of a poor quality, worked to decrease public trust in government performance. The SYLI evaluation linked youth frustration with their educational experience to support for violence.
Low quality education also contributed to pessimism among the young about future livelihoods and their ability to contribute to family and community. The evaluation went on to suggest that a poor educational experience can turn into a grievance leading to support for political violence when youth believe government is not doing enough to address their needs. (Tsefaye 2016) (Tsefaye 2018)
Education can also contribute to conflict if curriculum content or access is skewed towards one social group (e.g., the medium of instruction in Sri Lanka and the use of ethnic quotas in pre-genocide Rwanda). (Berry 2009) According to Mark Baird, if education facilities, staff and students are perceived in a partisan light, they often become the target of ongoing violence in fragile and conflict affected states. (Baird 2011)
Research on VEO recruitment has shown that youth who are isolated and excluded tend to be pulled more easily into violent groups that can provide a sense of community and belonging. (Pirio 2007) On the other hand, a welcoming and wholesome school environment can increase youth sense of kinship and attachment.
Harnessing the Constructive Capacity of Schools for Greater Social Cohesion and Peace
One reason why schools can play positive roles is that educators are skilled personnel located on site, and with training, they can impart knowledge and promote the adoption of prescribed positive behaviors. In addition, in situations where educators enjoy a level of respect within communities, they are often invited to participate in community participatory development activities outside of the school structure. (James 2016) (Networks 2014) (Johns Hopkins University 2017) (Green 2006) So, like local religious leaders, educators may serve as influencers at community meetings/discussions. One caveat to the potential constructive role of educators consists of situations in which educators are seen as corrupt, which typically would diminish community trust in them. (Inman 2009) (Bland 2009)
Mark Baird has indicated that schools can be harnessed for conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. He notes that in most African contexts,
The education system has an important social role in offering alternative values to evolve from violence to the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Public schools provide the most extensive system of outreach to local people, providing all kinds of opportunities to come together as a community. (Baird 2010)
Well-informed investment in school-based interventions holds the potential for countering violent extremism and recruitment by armed groups. (Orb International, 2018) (Agbiboa 2015) (Tsefaye 2016) In Uganda, just the promise of school attendance was successfully used to allure youth away from the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army. (Lancaster 2013)
The evaluation of the Somaliland school intervention, SYLI (referenced in the previous section), indicated that the negativities of the school experience could be turned around. Importantly, students, who became involved in SYLI intervention-promoted civic engagement activities such as student-led community action campaigns seemed to have developed a greater sense of agency (self-efficacy). Self-efficacy, namely the belief in one’s ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task, has long been established in the field of behavior change as playing a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks and challenges. (Bandura 1977) One’s sense of self-efficacy influences the effort one puts forth to abandon risky behaviors as well as one’s persistence to continue striving despite barriers and setbacks that may otherwise undermine motivation and confidence.
Those youth who engaged in the SYLI-promoted community action campaigns had greater confidence in the effectiveness of lodging a complaint with local officials, raising an issue in a group, or discussing concerns with community leaders with the intent of bringing about a desired change. Moreover, youth involved in civic engagement activities were more likely to employ these non-violent actions. The findings indicated that participating in student-led community action projects can increase the belief in the viability of nonviolent alternatives to address concerns. In SYLI-intervention schools, attendance came to have a positive impact on reducing the sense of isolation and marginalization experienced by youth. To the extent that attending school reduced this perceived isolation and exclusion, youth became less likely to be allured by violent groups and engage in violence. (Tsefaye 2016) (Tsefaye 2018)
Activities that involve youth in wider community activities beyond the confines of school should be among school interventions methods to promote courage and confidence among youth. They help to turn anger and frustration into the resolve to improve their situations and that of the larger community. In doing so, school-based interventions of this sort contribute to greater social cohesion including a healthy a sense of belonging.
Schools can be vehicles for positive change in communities in other ways. There are ample studies attesting to how school-age children can be engaged as change agents with their peers and within their households and larger community. For instance, when children learn the benefits to be derived from adopting healthy behaviors at school, they will often seek to influence peers, family members and the wider community to adopt such behavior. A study of a school-based malaria intervention in Kenya using a participatory health education approach indicated that the intervention contributed to decreased malaria prevalence among children and also among community adults, through the improvement of knowledge and practices. (Onyango-Oumaa 2005) School-based approaches have become common in several African countries and have contributed to the development of important new social norms that have helped to establish a culture of malaria prevention within communities. (Ayi 2010) (Kolaczinski 2014) (Networks 2014) (Partnership for Child Development 2013) (Onyanga-Ouma 2005)
Building Community Capacity to Solve Problems in Education and Beyond
As part of their strategies to improve the wellbeing of communities impacted by the extractive industries, governments, businesses and donors should support community capacity building in areas that the communities define as priorities. For schools, this can be done through the creation of community governing boards or robust parent teacher associations.
This can also occur in other areas of community life. For instance, if a community defines improved agricultural output as one of its goals, building the capacity of farmers groups may help improve productivity and has been shown to increase a community’s resilience to climate change. (Baudoin 2014)
Making community members empowered partners in the provision of public services, such as education, health services, policing and agricultural extension can also lead to improved governance and greater trust in governments. To achieve such positive results, it is important that stakeholders overseeing the disbursements of funds destined for community development to provide the communities with information with regard to the resources budgeted for social services in their community. Such transparency allows communities through their leaders and organizations such as parent teacher association or farmers groups to monitor the expenditures in their communities, lessening the prospect of corrupt actors siphoning off funds. This also enhances among community members a sense of empowerment and ownership of community projects. (Pirio 2018)
Community involvement in school governance, providing support and monitoring of performance through school support groups like parent teacher associations or governing boards appears to be key to positive school outcomes and heightens the impact of school-based social and behavior change interventions among students. Through these mechanisms, communities learn to optimize a school’s capacity for effective behavior change.
This has been the lesson learned from school-based Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) interventions in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia. In Kenya, for example, girl school attendance increased significantly because of improved hygiene for menstruating girls. Strong community support in terms of construction of latrines and the raising of funds contributed to sustaining gains, even if government funding fluctuated. (UNICEF 2012)
Where community involvement in schools is weak, policies and interventions designed to strengthen community involvement may be important in improving relations with the state. This was a strategy adopted by the USAID-funded Faisons Ensemble project in Guinea Conakry that sought to move the country from fragility to greater stability and resiliency. Faisons Ensemble worked with secondary school directors on management, helped to establish school development committees and student organizations, and publicized a code of conduct. (Arandel 2016)
There is also evidence to suggest that a participatory design of community monitoring of education interventions enhances outcomes. When community members and teachers, instead of school officials, are allowed to set their own priorities for improving schools and directly monitor performance, the outcomes have been far superior. A randomized controlled trial in Uganda revealed that a participatory scorecard whose content was determined by community members and teachers delivered more positive outcomes than the standard scorecards — whose indicators were determined by the Ministry of Education.
The participatory approach prompted higher efforts by teachers. It also prompted higher efforts from community members. Local politicians learned more about their country’s education policies and what they could advocate for on behalf of their constituents, parents increased their support of schools by contributing to midday meals and children found a forum to report teacher absenteeism and other factors that hurt their education. In the end, although the standard Ministry of Education scorecard made little difference in school performance, the participatory scorecard improved attendance by teachers and students and helped raise student test scores. (Zeitlin 2011)
The community participatory method in monitoring and evaluation of public services have been shown to empower communities, as it helps to develop a sense of ownership of both the process and the results. (Underwood 2009) A community empowered through the exercise of active leadership and the development of a collective sense of self-efficacy inevitably spills over into other areas of community well-being. The promotion of self-efficacy is an important exercise because in addition to changing behavior, self-efficacy is likely an essential human-centered dimension for achieving sustainability and resiliency.
Conclusion
My analysis of social and behavior change communication (SBCC) interventions across a wide variety of development sectors uncovered a consistent pattern of superior outcomes for interventions with community participatory approaches. It is important to incorporate participatory approaches into school-based and other interventions designed to benefit communities impacted by extractive investments. Conversely, my research also found consistently poor outcomes and failures in top-down, unidirectional approaches that fail to sufficiently include local actors. The community participatory approach has also proven effective in achieving outcomes in emergency settings, even in fragile contexts. (Pirio 2018) (Pirio et al 2020)
All stakeholders – governments (national, regional and local), businesses, community leaders, civil society organizations, parents and educational personnel — must become skilled in applying effective approaches. This can be accomplished by developing toolkits and by designing and facilitating workshops to impart knowledge and skills based on lessons learned and best practices. An important component in this set of skills is how to conduct monitoring and evaluation so as to determine if desired outcomes are being attained, and if not, what corrective actions must be taken to achieve the desired outcomes.
Applying such approaches will pay dividends from a human security perspective, as communities feel prosperous and that they are listened to and respected.
Governments have much to gain as these participatory approaches will increase stability and economic progress. There are ample examples of how the application of SBCC, especially participatory approaches, have improved the relationship between the public and those acting for state institutions. (Pirio 2018)
Investing corporations have much to gain from participatory approaches in terms of reputation, a reduction in operational risks and an overall greater security for their operations.
Investments that empower schools to meet community-articulated needs are an indispensable component of strategies designed to achieve authentic developmental goals. In such a situation, schools become instruments for peace and social cohesion as they help youth to experience a healthy sense of belonging. Knowing that they are developing skills essential for their future livelihoods fills the void of alienation that otherwise could be taken advantage of by those promoting negative narratives often with violent political goals.
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[1] The bulge phenomenon is mainly due to a stage of development where a country achieves success in reducing infant mortality but women still have a high fertility rate.
Author: Gregory Pirio, Director of the Extractive Industries and Human Development Center, Institute of World Affairs, Washington, DC