1. “Responsible Companies” and African Livestock-Keepers: Acting, Teaching, but not Learning? John Morton, NRI, University of Greenwich j.f.morton@gre.ac.uk

2. Pastoralists and the Private Sector If we aim to improve dialogues between pastoralists and other stakeholders, the private sector cannot be excluded Pastoralists are linked into markets for livestock, inputs, food, consumer goods, financial services “Corporate Social Responsibility” is becoming important in the design and rhetoric of development programmes

3. Three case studies Ethiopia: an attempt to explore what CSR might look like, in the pastoral sector and for indigenous business: interviews with meat and livestock exporters Senegal: Nestlé’s attempts to establish modern milk collection centres in pastoral areas Uganda: Corporate support to animal health measures with human health implications

4. Ethiopia Interviews with four meat export companies and six live-animal export companies in 2007 Companies unfamiliar with CSR per se, held a range of views on responsibility: – “business is not a charity” – “if the pastoralists do not survive, we do not survive” Engaged in philanthropic donations, commercial destocking, and hosting “study tours” Exporters see themselves as weak and in need of government support themselves – so government must take the lead in pastoral development

5. Ethiopia - destocking In dialogue with government and NGOs, live- animal exporters bought >20,000 excess head of cattle during 2006 drought, from more remote locations and in worse condition than normal Dialogue appeared more important than provision of credit Motives were mixed: “we did it to strengthen our relations with pastoralists: now everyone in Borana knows the name of Dr Shifera” Outside observers see this as more than just long- term commercial motives

6. Ethiopia – training pastoralists for the market Development programmes organising visits by elders/marketing group leaders/ordinary pastoralists to export abattoirs and other sites Pastoralists taught about buyers’ requirements (weight, sex, age) Exchange of information very one-way: – “VOCA brought the pastoralists here – we gave them our specifications” – “pastoralists do not want to be business oriented – I will contribute to the costs of communicating to them” Absence of exporters feeling the need to learn about accumulation and offtake strategies: assumed information deficit was entirely one-way

7. Senegal Case-study based on F. Vatin Le Lait et la Raison Marchande (Rennes, 1996) From 1990 Nestlé built five refrigerated collection centres around Dahra, also tried to introduce improved containers and purchased animal feed Did not factor in: – desire of Fulani to sell sheep and goat milk and consume cows milk – Conflicts of interest between men and women – Drought

8. Senegal (contd.) Nestlé constantly had to renegotiate terms of community co-operation in its own disfavour Paid higher than Dakar market prices (deflated by imported milk powder) but lower than local prices for soured milk Abandoned operations in Dahra – 2004-2007 – spent 14 years learning it could not offer a better incentive than traditional systems

9. Uganda Drug company Ceva and private equity company IK (with government and universities) responded to 1998 epidemic of human sleeping sickness in Soroti and adjoining districts Response involved mass trypanocidal treatment of cattle and establishment of regular cattle spraying for tsetse fly, at community-level Donation of drugs, campaign costs, advice Mixture of philanthropic and long-term business motives

10. Uganda – the “3V Vets” A new cadre of veterinary graduates distinct from drugstores Increasing awareness of spraying and use of Vectocid in particular Initially “mapping and messaging”, later setting up as businesses Salary support from IK, supposedly becoming sustainable businesses Advantages of mixed and flexible objectives handed on by companies

11. The 3V Vets - continued IK provided training in drawing up “business plans”, but: – Drug prices rose and availability declined – Cattle-owners – many not long out of IDP camps – were struck by drought and FMD These factors should not have been unforeseen – structural features of agro-pastoral livelihoods By mid-2009 future looked uncertain, and interest in tsetse control declined Project was permeated by training, teaching and messaging, but little attention to farmers’ objectives or constraints

12. Acting, teaching but not learning Achievements (destocking and mass treatment) positive and large-scale Dialogue with private sector on “CSR” is worthwhile for NGOs, CSOs, donors and researchers But all three case-studies show the private sector training and teaching but resisting learning This may be intrinsic to CSR in development, but arguably exacerbated by multiple and complex objectives and constraints of livestock-keepers Examining this resistance to learning will make for better forms of development based on dialogue