Hello Mike, Great discussion  on such a complex issue as you rightly pointed out.

If one defines multi-stake holder in the extractive sector as  groups of civil society, the private sector, the public sector, the media and other stakeholders that come together for a natural resource extraction or development, then there is a need to qualify the term as per regional blocks and basis.

In Africa, there has been much talk on  consultative workshops, multi stakeholder  meetings, partnerships  inclusive development process in all  sectors of the national growth, land polcies,national development strategies,  which are all shared understanding through collaboration. 

However, there is still a major problem in these African Countries in particular because most governments have a top- down approach and there is too much over centralization of power, even despite a good  score card in democratic governance ( voting and elections) 

Civil Society Organizations (CSO’s) don’t have the capacity and the political maturity of the population and civic engagement is still at its lowest.   These forms of consultation process are still good on paper in the African Countries. Until CSO’s have the capacity, political maturity as achieved and the average person on the street can read the technical blue prints and the media  be able to  challenge the central authorities,  multi- stake holding  will take time to develop and grow over time. 

Great stuff, Michael. Would you also include SWAPs in this category?