CSR and the Cotton-Poverty Relationship

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the progress and pitfalls of several distinctive types of corporate social responsibility (CSR) vis-à-vis the cotton-poverty relationship, and also discusses country-level factors that can impede the uptake of CSR or its efficacy. It hones in on a global norm-building effort known as the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) and on the work that has been done to establish a Cotton Made in Africa (CMIA) product label. A case study of Tanzania’s organic cotton movement is presented, and an account of the ways that the conventional cotton-buying scene in Tanzania is consequential for attempts to introduce CSR and make it viable is elaborated. The chapter contends that ‘hardcore’ approaches to responsibility involving third-party certification have a greater poverty-reducing potential than lighter-touch alternatives. However, the more stringent CSR variants are by no means a cure all. They could yet be squeezed out as competition to establish poverty-reducing best practices intensifies, or face considerable growth constraints if the evident disincentives to heightened levels of responsibility in Africa remain unchecked. A case is also made below that developments in the cotton issue area underscore the need for a more nuanced categorization of CSR types. Moving forward, analysts of these new phenomena should consider paying particular attention to the implications of private regulatory competition and look more closely at the ways that traditional philanthropic giving is supportive of the new responsibility or detracts from particular variants of it.