137
The capacity-building roadmap here presented builds upon the international
experience and a governance analysis of the Bolivian context. Policies, stakeholders
(government, small-scale miners, private sector and civil society organizations), and
existing collaborative governance arrangements have been examined for the purpose of this research. However, small-scale miners wonder if these governance
arrangements are valuable for them.
10.2 Literature Review
10.2.1 A Review of Resource Governance
Miners have proactively fostered the creation collaborative coalitions for effective
sustainable SSM governance. This emerged in response to global governance
restructuring which has pushed miners to meet unrealistic accountability mechanisms, a situation that has elicited tensions within the SSM industry in developing
countries such as Bolivia. Global concerns regarding the achievement of the SDG 9
and global agendas that guide mining performance are increasingly encouraging
miners to become accountable for local operations. Lack of capacity at the local
level to meet international demands has placed miners in a disadvantaged position
to meet global requirements and account for the adverse impacts of industrial activities. This has led miners to rethink existing governance arrangements at the local
level and collaborate with other stakeholders to be able to meet international and
national mandates through relevant capacity-building initiatives.
The notion of governance as a multi-stakeholder collaboration scenario is frequently based on the assumption that stakeholders participate on an equal basis in
decision-making processes and collaborate in the achievement of common goals
(Clarkson 1995; Gibson 2000; Tracey et al. 2005). However, this unrealistic multistakeholder collaboration approach can be challenged due to two reasons. On the
one hand, disadvantaged stakeholders such as miners lack the capacity to negotiate
and benefit from collaborative governance processes. On the other hand, “because
the relationships amongst actors are very often driven by factors such as unequal
power relations, lack of clarity in their roles and responsibilities, and tensions that
limit the possibilities of effective collaboration” (Franco 2014: 42). In Bolivian
resource regions, these multi-stakeholder relationships are becoming more complicated as miners are very often tasked with unrealistic top-down agendas. This situation is becoming unsustainable for the SSM industry as well as for surrounding
communities whose only livelihood option is mining.
The SSM industry in Bolivia is often challenged by the neoliberal rhetoric that
posits large corporations as central actors of the global and national economies. An
argument that puts more pressure on SSM as the latter has limited capacity to compete with mining giants. The neoliberal argument has largely been explored in
schools of thought like economics and business ethics. In the economic realm,
10 SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
The capacity-building roadmap here presented builds upon the international
experience and a governance analysis of the Bolivian context. Policies, stakeholders
(government, small-scale miners, private sector and civil society organizations), and
existing collaborative governance arrangements have been examined for the purpose of this research. However, small-scale miners wonder if these governance
arrangements are valuable for them.
10.2 Literature Review
10.2.1 A Review of Resource Governance
Miners have proactively fostered the creation collaborative coalitions for effective
sustainable SSM governance. This emerged in response to global governance
restructuring which has pushed miners to meet unrealistic accountability mechanisms, a situation that has elicited tensions within the SSM industry in developing
countries such as Bolivia. Global concerns regarding the achievement of the SDG 9
and global agendas that guide mining performance are increasingly encouraging
miners to become accountable for local operations. Lack of capacity at the local
level to meet international demands has placed miners in a disadvantaged position
to meet global requirements and account for the adverse impacts of industrial activities. This has led miners to rethink existing governance arrangements at the local
level and collaborate with other stakeholders to be able to meet international and
national mandates through relevant capacity-building initiatives.
The notion of governance as a multi-stakeholder collaboration scenario is frequently based on the assumption that stakeholders participate on an equal basis in
decision-making processes and collaborate in the achievement of common goals
(Clarkson 1995; Gibson 2000; Tracey et al. 2005). However, this unrealistic multistakeholder collaboration approach can be challenged due to two reasons. On the
one hand, disadvantaged stakeholders such as miners lack the capacity to negotiate
and benefit from collaborative governance processes. On the other hand, “because
the relationships amongst actors are very often driven by factors such as unequal
power relations, lack of clarity in their roles and responsibilities, and tensions that
limit the possibilities of effective collaboration” (Franco 2014: 42). In Bolivian
resource regions, these multi-stakeholder relationships are becoming more complicated as miners are very often tasked with unrealistic top-down agendas. This situation is becoming unsustainable for the SSM industry as well as for surrounding
communities whose only livelihood option is mining.
The SSM industry in Bolivia is often challenged by the neoliberal rhetoric that
posits large corporations as central actors of the global and national economies. An
argument that puts more pressure on SSM as the latter has limited capacity to compete with mining giants. The neoliberal argument has largely been explored in
schools of thought like economics and business ethics. In the economic realm,
10 SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure