Bistandsorganisationer bør gøre op med deres berøringsangst overfor erhvervslivet – How much trickles down to the poor out of the big investment projects in the developing world?
LONDON, 13 September 2011 (IRIN): The development community has traditionally held the corporate world at arm’s length, either ignoring it or treating it with deep suspicion, but there are benefits to cooperation, specialists say.
Peter Davis, a research fellow at Britain’s Overseas Development Institute, said:
– In development terms, the debate tends to be polarized between those of us who think the corporate sector can be broadly helpful in development and those who think it’s one step down from the devil himself.
– But look at Anglo-American. Their procurement (midler) spend in developing countries is broadly similar to the British government’s entire overseas development budget. A 2005 study of Unilever’s activities in Indonesia found the company created 5.000 jobs in the main business, but supported 300.000 jobs in the wider economy.
– So why do development plans for developing countries not involve the corporate sector? The UN development framework for Azerbaijan, for instance, makes no mention of what BP does. Given that it provides something like 75 percent of the economic activity in the country, it seems curious, to say the least, that its activities are not involved in the development planning, he told an audience in London’s Parliament on 7 September.
The suspicion between the two cultures is certainly mutual. Anton Mifsud-Bonnici, from BP’s strategy and policy department, described the development community as well-intentioned but inefficient.
– Yes there is a rapprochement, at least ideologically speaking, between ODA [official development assistance] and FDI [foreign direct investment], at least the rhetoric is such. But last year at the European Development Days in Brussels, there was not even one corporate sector speaker invited to speak.
He says what companies such as BP bring to the development process is not just huge resources but their willingness to take risks. “We take the risks that allow the government to spend money in health, education and housing, and not, for example, explore for oil and gas and find a dry hole. That is a true social service.”
Other companies contribute to development more directly.
When ArcelorMittal took over the old LAMCO iron ore concession in Liberia, it had to rebuild infrastructure destroyed during the civil war, including 260 km of railway line, and the export terminal at Buchanan. – We have spent 800 million US dollar (4,24 milliarder DKR) on this project, says Charlotte Wolff, head of corporate responsibility. “We have spent far more of it in Liberia than we originally thought possible. And our presence also sends a clear signal that Liberia is open for business.”
Stronger institutions
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