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Using discourse analysis, this paper synthesizes, characterizes, and summarizes information gathered from in-depth interviews and focus groups with key representatives of civil society, state, and market-oriented entities that form existing or emergent advocacy coalitions. Other "data" include those obtained through interactions with many of the principals as a result of the involvement of the NGOs Heifer Project-Ecuador, the Institute for Ecuadorian Studies, and Terranueva in various development and research projects and training efforts in the Canton of Cotacachi. The focus is on three issues that are particularly compelling at the local level, but the six advocacy coalitions (two per issue) include institutions at various levels from the local to international. Those

Natural resources can be an important source of funding for warring parties in armed conflicts. Curbing the trade in these so-called conflict resources is, therefore, part of the European Union's conflict management policies. The article explores the EU's policies in this field and asks, specifically, why the EU is using supply chain due-diligence measures to achieve this goal. The author argues that they are the response to enforcement problems of most existing multilateral and unilateral sanction regimes because of state weakness in the targeted regions. This approach results from a broader idea from the EU that transparency can improve resource governance and, therefore, safeguard both its political and economic interests in conflict zones, such as the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, when the issue becomes specific—as in the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation—translating this idea into concrete policies becomes more contentious as the EU institutions set different priorities for the final policy design.