Multi-Stakeholder Engagement Framework for Extractive Industries in the Oil and Gas Sector:

Abstract

Stakeholder engagement is an important element of any planned intervention as it goes a long way in shaping decisions related to such interventions. It is a continuous process that needs to be understood as running throughout the lifecycle of the intervention and beyond. Several international organizations have urged companies in the extractives industry to engage with local stakeholders in the industry, and for this reason, they issue “best practices” guidelines for doing so. Firms engaged in extraction of natural resources believe that such engagement reduces their operational risks because the local stakeholders have a significant effect on the operations and activities of the OPCs. Therefore, development of a stakeholder engagement plan through stakeholder analysis is important for policy formulation. It paves way for engagement of all the parties involved in research and policy development and this is why it is vital to have a robust legal framework on multi-stakeholder engagements. Due to the widening gap between the legal regimes of multi-stakeholder engagement framework for extractive industries in the oil and gas sector and realization of the objectives of this framework, this study is designed to analyze the legal framework on multi-stakeholder engagement in extractive industries focusing on the legal regimes in Uganda’s oil and gas sector. The study went go further to propose a legal strategy which prioritizes stakeholder engagements with the most severely affected rather than the most influential stakeholders in the oil and gas sector. The study will also review and comparatively study multi-stakeholder engagement frameworks in other countries and how the legal regimes have been designed to facilitate investment in the extractives industries in the oil and gas sector through enabling stakeholder engagements. Conclusively the researcher shall put forward recommendations regarding how the gaps in the legal frameworks on multi-stakeholder engagements in the extractives industries should integrate or regulate the identifiable influences of other stakeholders in Uganda’s oil and gas industry.