Please note that the video at the bottom of the page (ARTE +7) is only available until 8 August. Watch it ASAP! Note as well that it is very interesting but ONLY IN FRENCH! Introduction to the video: Would a growing share of official development assistance be diverted to large multinationals in the agri-food sector? A staggering survey conducted in three African countries: Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania.
Virtuous public-private partnership to fight poverty in Africa? The authors of the film went to Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania, but also to Germany, by giving the floor to public investors (including Minister of Cooperation Gerd Müller) and opponents of this policy. Indeed, in six of the seven projects exposed, the “win-win” bet (when companies are doing well, poverty is declining) is largely invalidated by the facts. Some multinationals take up land, pay wretched wages for the small number of agricultural workers they employ, and push farmers to abandon subsistence farming and become indebted for seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. If the situation of some, already privileged, seems to be improving, they also become totally dependent, not only of the inputs (fertilizers, material …) provided by these same multinationals, but also of the agricultural prices fixed by them. Yet alternative models of development aid exist. Such is the partnership between a European wholesaler of spices and exotic condiments associated with twenty-five spice producers in Zanzibar, and also supported by German cooperation. Should we not encourage more strongly this model of association of men and means, respecting the freedom and autonomy of small producers, favoring fair farming? This is another variation of the “win-win”.
Please note that this video is only available until August 8th. To watch thereforeas a matter of urgency.
http://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/059525-000-A/vertueuses-les-multinationales