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About this course

Natural resources represent a potentially transformational opportunity to support development but are ultimately finite How do we make the most of them without destroying the planet? In this 12-week course, produced by the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and the World Bank, learn about efforts to sustainably manage extractive industry investments. You will come to understand the complex and interwoven aspects of natural resource governance and become part of a global movement of citizens and practitioners committed to harnessing the transformational impacts of our natural resources.



This course is for:
  • Sustainable development practitioners – as well as private-sector actors, such as those who work in corporate sustainability and responsibility or renewable energy – who need a historical context of the extractives industry and its evolution
  • Extractive practitioners, such as those who work in oil, gas and mining, who are interested in making the field more sustainable
  • Graduate students and advanced undergraduate students studying extractives, environmental science, environmental law, sustainable development, sustainable business and related fields
  • Climate change activists or practitioners looking to understand the balance of sustainable resource use and business investment

What you'll learn

  • How countries translate natural resource wealth into sustainable development outcomes
  • How governance of extractive industries impact long term economic development
  • The policies necessary for the sustainable management of natural resource wealth
  • Why communication between government, industry, and citizens is critical to sustainable natural resource management

Course Syllabus

Module 1: Challenges and opportunities
  • History of oil, gas, and mining
  • Challenges & opportunities: oil, gas, and mining
  • The decision chain of natural resource management (I)
  • The decision chain of natural resource management (II)
Module 2: Political economy of natural resources 
  • How natural resources shape and are shaped by political context
  • Corruption trends in the extractive sector
  • International governance
  • Natural resources & the broader governance framework
  • Transparency & accountability
Module 3: Fundamentals of oil, gas, and mining: industry considerations and policy
  • From oil well to car - market, players, and extraction process
  • From mine to mobile phone - market, players, and extraction process
  • How a company decides to invest
  • Project development
  • Evolving technology
Module 4: Legal overview
  • Legal & regulatory frameworks for extractive industries
  • Allocation of rights
  • Implementation & monitoring of legal frameworks
  • International law & the extractive industries
  • State-owned enterprises: Role and governance
Module 5: Fiscal regime design and revenue collection
  • Resource economics & fiscal regime principles
  • Fiscal instruments I: Royalty/tax systems
  • Fiscal instruments II: Contract-based systems
  • Fiscal regime implementation
Module 6: Anticipating and managing environmental issues
  • Environmental challenges and trends: oil and gas
  • Environmental challenges and trends: mining
  • Managing environmental challenges
  • Extractives and climate change
  • Environmental impact assessments
Module 7: Community rights
  • Social impact and engagement
  • Human rights and the mining industry
  • Mining and vulnerable populations
  • Company-community agreements
Module 8: Artisanal mining
  • Introduction to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM)
  • Challenges of ASM
  • ASM and gender
  • Tensions between ASM and large-scale mining
  • The way forward
Module 9: Revenue management
  • Challenges of revenue management
  • Policy responses: savings, spending, public debt, and earmarking
  • Natural resource funds
  • Revenue sharing and decentralization
Module 10: Investing in sustainable development: Economic linkages to the extractives sector
  • Introduction to economic linkages
  • Local employment
  • Local procurement
  • Enabling tech transfer
  • Downstream linkages
Module 11: Investing in sustainable development: Looking beyond extractives
  • Investing in investing
  • Leveraging extractive industries for infrastructure
  • Resource-for-infrastructure deals
Module 12: Cross-cutting considerations and looking ahead
  • Political tripod and authorizing environment
  • Engaging citizens
  • Aligning extractive industries with the SDGs

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