The Role of Norad's Oil for development programme in environmental management in Ghana

Abstract

ABSTRACT Norad's Oil for Development (OfD) programme entered an agreement with Ghana in 2008 following Ghana's major oil discovery in the Jubilee Field in 2007. Mainly using policies based on the internationally approved concept good governance', and on Norwegian oil experience, the programme aims to assist the country in avoiding a resource curse. One area of focus in OfD's programme is environmental governance and, using a political ecology approach, this study examines the nature of this assistance and its possible impact on Ghana's environmental management of its oil industry. From a geographical perspective, the place- specificity of strategies, which is necessary in environmental management, is not sufficient, and the concept environmentality' may be applied to describe the power-laden nature of the programme and the OfD discourse's framing of issues related to the collaboration. Accusations of conflicts of interest between the private and public sector also lead to the programme omitting issues relevant to Ghana's environmental oil governance. Its institutional capacity-building approach has, arguably, strengthened the structure of environmental institutions at the macro-level, but is unlikely to be sufficient in strengthening Ghana's environmental management of its oil sector as a whole.