Locals increasingly see Western humanitarian interventions abroad as "intrusive and disempowering," according to a World Disasters Report released last week by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Many companies that do business abroad couldn't agree more, which is one reason they're worrying less about corporate social responsibility and instead focusing on working with locals, the report notes.
Even aid evangelists consider much
Western corporate do-gooderism to be little more than a thick
coat of (RED)-washing or
P.R. Instead of focusing on charming their Western patrons, some
international companies are turning to would-be aid recipients,
seeing them as able people who make successful business
partners.
The report highlights a few examples, including a joint yogurt-making venture between the microfinance group Grameen Bank and French food company Groupe Danone. Another example involves smallholder farmers becoming part of a global supply chain:
[British charity] Oxfam argues that the long-held belief that smallholder farmers do not respond to market opportunities is unfounded. Although the main priority for many poor farmers is feeding their families, they remain motivated to produce and market surplus crops. Oxfam has a successful history of working with the private sector to bring smallholders into markets. One example is collaboration with a Sri Lankan company, Plenty Foods, which is integrating 1,500 farmers into its supply chain. The company estimates that sourcing supplies from smallholders has been a key factor in its annual growth of 30 percent for the past four years. At the same time, the farmers have better access to land, credit and technical support—as well as markets—and their incomes have increased accordingly.
Reason's Jesse Walker has highlighted the importance of local knowledge in aid work, and Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo has talked to Reason about the failure of aid to Africa.
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Heroic Mulatto|9.26.11 @ 10:10PM|#
Trade vs. Corporate Social Responsibility: Trade Wins!
FATALITY!
|9.26.11 @ 10:21PM|#
Super NES: Better gameplay, graphics
Sega:Blood
Choose wisely!
squishua|9.26.11 @ 10:25PM|#
Sega Genesis, baby!
squishua|9.26.11 @ 10:24PM|#
+1
|9.26.11 @ 11:59PM|#
This is why I bother to check the comments section throughout the day.
+10
|9.26.11 @ 10:20PM|#
It is utterly dehumanizing and exploitative to pay poor local people to trade with you rather than to just rain bags of rice down on them from military plains.
Where is your humanity!?!?!?
|9.26.11 @ 10:21PM|#
ummm... that's planes, not plains. Slow down on the beer cali
flye|9.26.11 @ 11:42PM|#
The grains from plains rain mainly from planes.
CT|9.27.11 @ 1:21AM|#
+1 flye.
sevo|9.26.11 @ 10:42PM|#
"some international companies are turning to would-be aid recipients, seeing them as able people who make successful business partners."
To sort of steal from Friedman's methods of spending money: There are not all that many ways of distributing 'charity'.
A) Give a man a fish. The absolute WORST! Take a fish from the fisherman and give it to someone who won't fish.
B) Teach a man to fish. Much better, but that means the fisherman spends time teaching rather than fishing.
C) Encourage a man to watch the fisherman and develop new ways of catching fish! Now we're on to something; the fisherman wins, too!
Want some of my money? Fine; figure out a way to get it that benefits both of us.
Sidd Finch|9.26.11 @ 11:32PM|#
Since its launch in 2006, (RED) has generated over $170 million for the Global Fund and over 7.5 million people have been impacted by HIV and AIDS programs supported by your (RED) purchases.
Fucking Assholes
NOAMWARD ZINNSKY|9.27.11 @ 12:50AM|#
THIS IS CORPORATE EXPLOITATION OF THE WORKING-CLASS AND NOAMWARD ZINNSKY WILL NOT STAND FOR IT!!!!
Achtung Coma Baby|9.27.11 @ 1:26AM|#
Was Noam conducting teleportation experiments when the corpse of Howard Zinn just happened to fall into the pod at initiation?
ORGANIC Orgasmic|9.27.11 @ 1:03AM|#
In a moving narration, actor and activist Alec Baldwin exposes the truth behind humanity's cruelest invention―the factory farm.
Achtung Coma Baby|9.27.11 @ 1:10AM|#
"...the factory farm."
Says the well-fed, bazillionaire, dumbass movie actor that needed Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan to resurrect a career that hadn't seen success since Red October.
...But hey, Stephen Colbert was asking Radiohead for advice on how to convince Americans that AGW is real, so what do I know?
Apatheist|9.27.11 @ 2:18AM|#
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm bacon
Moncler jakker|9.27.11 @ 4:56AM|#
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