Its mission is to produce research to inform policies and guarantee sustainable use of these resources, taking into account their importance as common goods. The chair aims to bring a new perspective on the governance of natural resources in developing countries, contextualizing it in the competition between great powers to obtain essential minerals necessary for the energy transition and digitalization.
The Natural Resources Management chair benefits from the support of Cerdi, which plays a key role in the training of many African economists. By relying on this vast academic and political network across Africa, the chair will be able to bring together researchers from developing countries and widely disseminate research results in these regions.
The chair is headed by Rabah Arezki, CNRS research director at Cerdi, former Chief Economist and Vice-President at the African Development Bank. In 2023, the latter led the preparation of a work on climate change, natural resources and geopolitics.