Trans Border Natural Resource Management Institutional Factors and Sustainable Development in the Mano River Basin of West Africa

This study investigated the influence of trans-border natural resource management institutional factors on sustainable development in the Mano River Basin of West Africa which is shared by four countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast. Specifically, the study examined if the trans-border natural resource management institutional factors and its parameters namely; policies, cultural practices, conflict management practices, information exchange channels, support service availability and decision making politics influenced sustainable development in the Mano river Basin. The descriptive cross-sectional survey design involved 555 respondents who were interviewed and completed self-administered questionnaires, whose validity and reliability were duly tested using factor and reliability analysis. Triangulation was done at the level of data collection (i. e. the study used both qualitative and quantitative research approaches). Qualitative data was analysed using NVivo9 software while quantitative data was analysed using SPSS. Quantitative data was first subjected to missing value analysis using (MCAR) test and test of parametric assumptions. The emerging results were then treated to descriptive analysis using means and standard deviations, while inferential analysis used correlations and multiple regressions. The main findings were that trans-natural resource management institutional factors negatively influenced sustainable development. Therefore the study recommended that the Mano River Union should enhance and strengthen trans-border natural resource management institutional factors (policies, cultural practices, conflict management practices, information exchange channels, support service availability and decision making politics) if sustainable development is to be attained.