Tony Addison at the SEI and SweDev dialogue on development research

Tony Addison, UNU-WIDER Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow and Extractives for Development (E4D) – risks and opportunities project lead, joins a dialogue event The extractive industries in the developing world: dilemmas and opportunities on 19 September 2023. The online event is organised by Stockholm Environment Institute's Development Policy and Finance Team and the Swedish Development Research Network (SweDev).

In his presentation Tony Addison discusses how oil, gas and mining remain important for low-income and middle-income countries as sources of public revenue and foreign exchange. Many developing countries still see opportunities in oil, gas and coal, not only for revenues but also to serve their growing domestic energy and transport needs. At the same time, the extractive industries are big emitters (especially so in the case of fossil fuels) and they can cause serious environmental damage which undermines other sources of livelihood. Further, the sector still has a high prevalence of non-transparency and corruption.

The dialogue includes time for a discussion with Joakim Wohlfeil (Senior Advisor, Conflict and Justice, Diakonia), with opening and closing remarks by Janet Vähämäki (Director, SweDev Secretariat). Attendees will have the opportunity to pose questions to the keynote speaker during the session.

The presentation is part of UNU-WIDER's Extractives for Development (E4D) – risks and opportunities project, which operates under UNU-WIDER's programme on Domestic Revenue Mobilization (DRM). The DRM programme is financed by the Norwegian development co-operation agency Norad.