Research
Research Interests
My research concerns policies that promote state-led development such as local content policies in oil and gas as well as the politics that surrounds their implementation. Local content encourages local participation in and benefit from resource extraction.
I am interested in the promise and pitfalls of these policies in terms of national governance, local participation, community development, industrial growth and domestic and international relations.
More broadly, this topic extends to encompass a range of political and economic questions around development and underdevelopment, economic diversification, employment and unemployment, and best practices/lessons learned in the implementation and continued monitoring of local content. I also do work on renewable energy and industrialization as well as sustainable energy transitions in Africa and Canada.
My research concerns policies that promote state-led development such as local content policies in oil and gas as well as the politics that surrounds their implementation. Local content encourages local participation in and benefit from resource extraction. I am interested in the promise and pitfalls of these policies in terms of national governance, local participation, community development, industrial growth and domestic and international relations.
More broadly, this topic extends to encompass a range of political and economic questions around development and underdevelopment, economic diversification, employment and unemployment, and best practices/lessons learned in the implementation and continued monitoring of local content. I also do work on renewable energy and industrialization as well as sustainable energy transitions in Africa and Canada.
Consultancies
I have worked as a consultant for numerous organizations, including the African Development Bank on Angola, Morocco and Tanzania, for the DFID project Facility for Oil Sector Transparency and Reform in Nigeria (FOSTER), the World Bank, and the Mining Shared Value initiative of Engineers Without Borders. This allows me to share my expertise on a wide range of topics related to local content and state-led development through extractive industries. I continue to seek opportunities to use critical international political economy as a tool for applied policy research and analysis.
Other Roles
I am a member of the Editorial Board of Canadian Journal for Development Studies/Revue canadienne d’études du développement and a Contributing Editor to Review of African Political Economy.
Research Projects
African Extractivism & the Green Transition
State-Subsidized Battery Plants in the Copperbelt and Canada: A Step Toward Integrated Critical Minerals Value Chains?
In order to encourage green transitions and integration between critical minerals extraction and battery production for electric vehicles (EV), both the governments of Zambia and Canada are subsidizing new EV battery plants. In Canada, the federal government has partnered with the Government of Ontario and City of Windsor to subsidize the NextStar EV battery plant in Windsor, Ontario.
Resource Nationalism in Southern Africa
Policy Challenges and Emerging Opportunities
This project strives to build a partnership for collaborative research on the impact of Resource Nationalism (RN) upon the extractive industries of Southern Africa, with the aim of informing and strengthening national policy processes and their developmental outcomes.
Research on RN in the mineral-rich countries in Southern Africa has typically been siloed at the national level, with little dialogue occurring among mining stakeholders in neighbouring states.
Consultant for DFID Project
Measurement of Local Content in Nigeria - A Framework for working with stakeholders to increase the effectiveness of local content monitoring and development
Local content policies offer exciting new potential for economic development in Nigeria by encouraging economic activity, value addition, and job creation. Through Nigerian content, Nigeria may finally be able to make its oil wealth a blessing instead of a curse. Almost three years after the passage of the landmark Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (the Nigerian Content Act or NOGICD Act) in 2010, significant progress has been made.
