Angola’s general elections take place on 24 August, but there is little hope that democracy will prevail in this securitised country with a legacy of kleptocracy, thanks to the late President Jose Eduardo dos Santos who died on 8 July. Angola’s electoral commission has been captured by the ruling MPLA party, and most of its oil exports go to Europe, which will have an interest in maintaining the status quo, explains GGA’s Director of Research and Programmes, Dr Ross Harvey, in the latest episode of The Conversation.
To learn more about this topic, read Dr Ross Harvey’s article
Dr Ross Harvey is a natural resource economist and policy analyst, and he has been dealing with governance issues in various forms across this sector since 2007. He has a PhD in economics from the University of Cape Town, and his thesis research focused on the political economy of oil and institutional development in Angola and Nigeria. While completing his PhD, Ross worked as a senior researcher on extractive industries and wildlife governance at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), and in May 2019 became an independent conservation consultant. Ross’s task at GGA is to establish a non-renewable natural resources project (extractive industries) to ensure that the industry becomes genuinely sustainable and contributes to Africa achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ross was appointed Director of Research and Programmes at GGA in May 2020.
