Does sub-Saharan Africa need capitalist philanthropy to reduce poverty and achieve food security?

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Note on contributor

Behrooz Morvaridi teaches development theory and policy at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bradford. He has undertaken research and advisory work in Tajikistan, Turkey, Cyprus, India, Iran, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Tunisia and Oman. His latest edited book (2015) is on New philanthropy and social justice: debating conceptual and policy issues.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Zekat is one of the five pillars of Islam and it is obligatory for Muslims who have a reasonable income to pay zekat to help to reduce poverty and build a fairer society. Payment is calculated annually on the bases of income and property (circa 2.5% of an individual’s total savings and assets). Other forms of giving, such as sadaka (alms) and Vakif (religious endowment) are not obligatory. Tzedakah is a Jewish religious obligation, and this type of giving is an important aspect of living a spiritual life.

2. Some of the activities of contemporary charity organisations, such as War on Want, ActionAid, Friends of the Earth, Open Society and Oxfam, to name a few, also support advocacy work that is motivated by a social justice agenda.

3. Carol Thompson's idea of philanthrocapitalism and the value chain is interesting and relevant to my discussion, but I do not agree with her argument that ‘philanthrocapitalism’ is a concept elaborated and ‘coined by The Economist magazine in 2006’. This is incorrect – the concept of philanthrocapitalism was coined by Bishop and Green (whom President Bill Clinton praised for being innovative in his introduction to their book). Bishop and Green assert that we are witnessing new ‘global movements' initiated by individual capitalists who want to do ‘good’ and help the poor to make the world a better place in which to live. Subsequently Michael Edwards responded to their idea and wrote a couple of articles and a book (see Edwards 2010).

4. See http://givingpledge.org/.

5. Additionally the foundation invested in Arcos Dorados Holdings (McDonald's global franchise company), Wal-Mart, ExxonMobil, BP, McDonald's, Berkshire Hathaway, Crown Castle International and many others. In 2015 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Asset Trust decided to sell 21.4 million shares valued at US$914.2 million in Coca-Cola, and 8.1 million shares in ExxonMobil that were worth US$765.9 million. These holdings were the Foundation's fourth- and fifth-largest holdings in the previous quarter, making up nearly US$2 billion of a US$21.7 billion public stocks portfolio. Coca-Cola recently reported that its fourth-quarter profit fell by 55% from the same period one year earlier (see Das 2015).

6. Via Campesina is a global movement representing small farmers, landless workers, fisher folk, rural women, youth and indigenous peoples, and has 150 member organisations from 70 countries on five continents.