Foreign Affairs committee  All of the work that we are doing in the context of this initiative in Ghana and elsewhere is to ensure that local people in Bibiani, and Ghana as a whole, benefit to the greatest extent possible in terms of the investments that are being made by binding firms in that country. So

Foreign Affairs committee  Who would you like to speak?

Foreign Affairs committee  Could I add an example to that, though?

Foreign Affairs committee  Mining is going to be an important sector for many countries. It already is for many countries and many more in the African context. On mining, or resource extraction more broadly, I think the case of South Sudan is quite illustrative of all of this. To make the best out of that

Foreign Affairs committee  Very much so.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it has to. It does and it has to. In the case of our project, it needs to look at all of the broad operations and impact that mining has within local areas and to help local government officials and communities understand how to negotiate. What does the law say in their c

Foreign Affairs committee  There could be. Ours is really focused on the district level government itself and is more embedded there, but it certainly can and should, in many instances.

Foreign Affairs committee  There's a lot that still needs to be done. I guess our approach to this issue in the context of Bibiani, this district where we are working, is to help the local government establish that platform where they can actually regularly interact with mining firms on these issues. As we

Foreign Affairs committee  I would say that Ghana is relatively well governed, in general, on these issues, although—

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. There are hundreds of thousands of people already involved in the mining sector, in artisanal small-scale mining. It's generally not a family-run business, but rather large numbers of individual people often mining alluvial fields that are close to the surface. It's often i

Foreign Affairs committee  My comments will, I think, complement yours, John, but will be focused on a specific sector and an issue that is currently quite topical in the media, and that's mining and the role that mining plays in the development strategies of many of the countries in which my organization