(5)The Art and Science of Benefit Sharing in the Natural Resource Sector

摘要

If developed and managed appropriately, a country's oil, gas, and mineral resources can make a major contribution to economic development and poverty alleviation. The revenues generated by the production of oil, gas, and minerals can fund government programs and transform natural assets into human, social, and physical capital, helping to drive sustainable development and longterm poverty reduction. There is a diverse set of stakeholders - governments, communities, and investors - who have expectations and strong interests in the decision to develop an oil, gas or mineral resource, the timing of that decision, and how the development of the asset is managed, including how the costs and benefits of natural resource development are to be shared. These issues are alive for emerging mineral producers - where, for example, the prospects of domestic revenue generation are tempting for host governments but threatening to local communities that are wary about how they may be compensated for environmental and social impacts. They are equally alive for established producing countries with a long history of extraction that aim to counterbalance little perceived benefit to date through more fiscal and economic obligations on private companies. The paper presents an overarching framework for assessing the sharing of benefits and costs of natural resource development for a multi-stakeholder audience. It is intended to provide entry points for stakeholders of varying levels of familiarity with the issues and to contribute to the understanding and discussion of how the costs and benefits of natural resource development are shared across society. At the core, the paper presents how IFC, as both an investor and a development organization, determines whether benefits and costs are shared reasonably and whether IFC can invest in a particular natural resource project. Through its long experience in the natural resource sector, IFC has learned that investments likely will run into problems at some point in their life cycles if there are imbalances in the sharing of fiscal, economic, environmental, and social costs and benefits. By describing IFC's thinking and lessons learned, the goal of the paper is to promote a broad, constructive dialogue across stakeholders - governments, investors, civil society, and others- around benefit sharing.