The crisis of leadership in minerals governance in Ghana: Could process leadership fill the void?

Abstract

This article interrogates the governance of minerals mining using the lens of leadership and the case study of Ghana. Some experts estimate that small-scale mining accounted for the removal of 25 % of forest cover in Ghana's southwestern areas within the decade ending 2017, despite only accounting for a third of the country's gold production. Despite the centrality of minerals for Ghana's energy transition ambitions and recent alarm expressed by the government, civil society groups, and the international community about the pervasiveness of the crisis, it persists and afflicts environmental sustainability, health and livelihoods within the mining catchment areas. Using primary data from several interviews, digital ethnography, and observations, I depart from existing discourses that document the scope and impact of the crisis to quiz instead, the reasons behind the persistence of the ‘illegal’ small-scale mining despite availability of laws and public pronouncements by government and other stakeholders against it. The findings show that the absence of process-oriented leadership – that is, the predictable, accountable, and participatory leadership that reconciles the interests of the state and society – accounts for the persistence of small-scale and illegal mining. I propose the utilisation of the social license at the disposal of members of society as a bottom-up remedy to reverse this trend.