A dialectico-systemic CSR model for better gold mining practices in Ghana

Abstract

This paper has attempted to clarify the dialectic contradictions between mining companies and their host communities with experiences from the Ghana‟s gold mining industry. Many attempts have been made by parastatal institutions, donor and transnational mining companies to present the corporate citizenship drives of these companies as effective and satisfactory. However, historical and systemic dialectic method of analysis reveal that these companies are basically in Ghana to maximise profit without taking the interest of the host communities seriously on their business agenda and are in diverse ways implementing cosmetic community programmes that are unable to help mitigate rural poverty. In many instances, these companies are causing destruction to fragile endemic ecosystems and extensive displacement of defenceless rural communities. Weak public institutions, lack of awareness regarding basic rights on the part of these rural inhabitants and limited access to necessary information result in an immense imbalance of power, wealth and knowledge that favours these big corporations. Based on the systemic (structural-functional) approaches, a model of link between the business objectives of the companies and the aspirations of the host communities is established for a greater integration and systemisation of the corporate social responsibility programs whose practical implication would contribute to the achievement of social equilibrium.