From the article:
What do the people want?
It's a simple enough question but one that East African countries rarely ask when it comes to deciding how to use the revenues from their oil and gas discoveries.
A group of American researchers sat down to think of ways that Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique, which have major oil and gas finds, could avoid the rampant corruption, community conflict, violence and poverty commonly called the “resource curse” that has plagued so many resource-rich countries.
They are testing whether talking to citizens about natural resource wealth ahead of time can build trust and help countries make better decisions on how to invest the revenues.
"There is an underlying assumption that the misspending of natural resource revenues is because people demand spending now and they lack foresight," said Justin Sandefur, research fellow at the Center for Global Development.
"We are interested to see what actually people say when you ask them."
Read the article here
