Chilenye Nwapi

Abstract

This paper examines how, within a neoliberal extractive resource governance framework, countries in the global South can forge their own development path successfully. The paper proceeds from the standpoint that the meaning of neoliberalism is not cast in stone and that it is possible within a neoliberal framework for countries in the global South to formulate new policies that are capable of lifting them out of poverty and inequality. The paper focuses on how the global South may use the local content policy in extractive resource governance to strengthen regional competitiveness and address interregional inequalities. It argues that a local content policy designed to give deliberate consideration to the regions where the resource extraction takes place, accompanied by an income redistribution policy administered by the central government, has a great potential to engender regional competitiveness and consequently address interregional inequalities within countries in the global South.