On the Brink of Extractivist Development: Youth and the Economics of Hope in Mtwara’s Gas Industry

Lunch talk by Genevieve Sekumbo

In this insightful discussion on the dynamics of extractivist development, Genevieve Sekumbo explores how the 2010 discovery of offshore natural gas in Tanzania sparked transformative economic expectations for Mtwara—a historically marginalized region—and reshaped local youth aspirations.

Date: 19 March 2025
Time: 12:00 -13:30
Location: Roeterseilandcampus - building B/C/D (entrance B/C)
Room: B9.22 (common room Political Science)

Initially heralded as a catalyst for regional growth, the gas rush promised wealth from a resource-rich and highly automated industry.

However, stalled investments, contractual disputes, and market downturns soon disrupted these prospects. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2020 and 2022 during the industry's downturn, Genevieve Sekumbo examines how the gas sector—while ostensibly representing economic growth—has contributed to the limited integration of youth and deepened disillusionment among those targeted by Corporate Social Responsibility.

About Genevieve Sekumbo

Genevieve Sekumbo recently defended her PhD thesis at the Graduate Institute of Geneva in Switzerland. She is currently a researcher in Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute and serves as a Research Assistant on the ESRC project Synthetic Lives: The Futures of Mining.

This talk is organized by ClimateFiGS: Understanding the Allocation of Climate Finance in the Global South. Funded by the ERC Starting Grant, led by political scientist Ruth Carlitz, and part of the programme group Political Economy and Transnational Governance at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR).

The growing impact of climate change presents stark disparities, with wealthy nations emitting most CO2 while poorer nations bear the brunt. To address this, wealthy nations pledged $100 billion annually in climate finance for vulnerable countries. Yet, little is known about its impact in the Global South.

ClimateFiGS aims to fill this gap by analyzing how climate finance is allocated and spent, considering leaders' characteristics and priorities. By creating new global data and studying African countries, ClimateFiGS sheds light on decision-making dynamics and aims to mitigate the most devastating impacts of climate change on the world's most vulnerable.

On the Brink of Extractivist Development: Youth and the Economics of Hope in Mtwara’s Gas Industry

About Genevieve Sekumbo

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