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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Responsible Production in Africa: Asian Drivers as Threat or Opportunity?
| Panel |
76. Invited AEGIS panel: The role of China and India in Africa
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| Paper ID | 641 |
| Author(s) |
Knorringa, Peter
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Responsible production refers to those situations where the spiders-in-the web of supply chains make a deliberate effort to include, throughout their supply chain, labour and environmental standards that go beyond the existing minimum legal requirements. In this way, I use responsible production as an umbrella term, encompassing both Fair Trade and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
While CSR is particularly important to investigate the likelihood of broadening the reach of responsible production as it involves usually large brand-sensitive corporations, Fair Trade initiatives are inherently niche activities that may provide significant demonstration effects of localised depth of responsible production when investigating how to enhance its developmental relevance. This paper is part of a broader program of research that raises two basic questions in order to begin assessing the development relevance of responsible production. First, how likely is it that responsible production becomes increasingly mainstreamed? Second, to what extent can we expect the ‘tool’ of responsible production to enhance developmental outcomes? In other words, these questions explore the quantitative – reach - and qualitative – depth - importance of responsible production for development.
This paper will piece together the existing case studies and other evidence of responsible production in Africa, precisely because Africa can be argued to be the least likely place to start looking. The question that will drive this paper is whether the increased competitive pressures from Asia are pushing African producers to an ever more desperate race to the bottom, and whether a significant number of examples exist of (groups of) producers of specific products destined for particular market segments that consciously compete through higher labour and environmental standards. The answers should provide information for a preliminary assessment of the likelihood of an increased reach of responsible production in (certain parts of) Africa, and of whether specific examples of localised depth in responsible production can be identified in Africa.
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