Legal empowerment for local resource control

12
generally, the range of strategies and tactics for helping these groups make
the most of the opportunities offered by the law. The concept of legal and
para-legal tools is further discussed below (section 2.3).
The study tackles these issues with specific regard to foreign investment
projects in Africa. Foreign investment is defined here following
internationally recognised definitions of “foreign direct investment” (FDI).
According to UNCTAD, FDI refers to investment made to acquire “a lasting
interest and control” in an enterprise operating outside the economy of the
investor, and with a view to having “a significant degree of influence on the
management of the enterprise” (UNCTAD, 2006:293). As parent companies
usually operate in other countries through subsidiaries established under
the law of the host state, the term “foreign investor” includes local
subsidiaries that are owned or controlled by foreign nationals.
The focus on foreign (as opposed to domestic) investment is motivated by
socio-economic and policy factors on the one hand, and by legal factors on
the other. As for the former, in recent years many African states have made
policy efforts to attract foreign investment. A focus on foreign investment is
therefore of significant policy relevance.
In addition, several African countries have experienced substantial increases
in foreign investment flows and stocks (see Table 1 and Chart 1) – although
to different degrees (with big shares of investment concentrated in South
Africa and in countries with important petroleum and mineral resources,
particularly Nigeria; see Table 1); and not to the same extent as other
regions like Latin America and South-East Asia (see Table 2). Countries like
Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania, which received limited or
very limited foreign investment until the early 1990s, now host sizeable
stocks of foreign investment (see Table 1 and Chart 2). And although within
the global economy sub-Saharan Africa remains a marginal destination for
foreign investment (as suggested by Table 2), for many African countries
foreign investment is increasingly important – as indicated by substantial
increases of FDI-to-GDP ratios (see Table 1 and Chart 1). While much of the
literature has traditionally tackled resource access for local groups in Africa
as an eminently “local” issue, this changed situation requires placing local
relations within their global context. This includes tackling the specificities
of securing local resource rights within the context of foreign investment
projects.