Legal empowerment for local resource control

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2.2. FOREIGN INVESTMENT PROJECTS IN AFRICA:
DIFFERENCES IN POWER, DIFFERENCES IN LAW
2.2.1. Power relations in foreign investment projects
In foreign investment projects, power (in both its coercive and persuasive
dimensions) informs relations among the many actors involved. These include:
The corporation(s) implementing the investment project (the “investor(s)”).
This comprises several legal entities (e.g. the parent company based in the
home country and the subsidiary incorporated in the host country), which
may bear different worldviews, interests and negotiating power. The
investor may exert considerable power vis-à-vis other actors such as local
resource users and the host state, based on differences in skills, resources
and economic clout. However, this varies considerably across sectors: for
instance, in the mining and petroleum sectors, investment is tied to a
particular location for longer periods, which undermines the investor’s
negotiating power vis-à-vis the host state; while logging companies can
more easily move their investment, which tends to strengthen their
negotiating power (Filer with Sekhran, 1998). Power relations between the
investor, local resource users and the host state also vary during the
implementation of the investment project (see below).
Local resource users affected by the investment project. These experience
substantial power asymmetries in their relations with foreign investors
and the central state (e.g. due to illiteracy, lack of resources and lack of
legal awareness); but may still dispose of (legal or illegal) ways of
exercising power, including through sabotage of the investor’s assets (on
these aspects, see e.g. Akpan, 2005, and Filer with Sekhran, 1998). Local
resource users typically include different groups that have competing
interests and unequal negotiating power (along status, wealth, age,
gender and other lines). These internal divisions may be exacerbated by
the higher stakes brought about by the investment project, when some
groups may oppose the project while others may strike deals with foreign
investors and with the central state to the detriment of other local groups
(see e.g. Amanor, 1999).
The host state in which the investment takes place. The host state sets the
terms and conditions of the investment project (often on the basis of