Effects of CSR Policies on Responsible Governance in the Cocoa Industry in Developing Countries: A Case of Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria

Abstract

With the resurgence in the public eye and media of the actions undertaken by Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana to raise minimum wages in the cocoa industry, questions have risen of whether the companies in the cocoa/chocolate industry have improved their CSR practices or not. A closer look highlights that there are still issues with regards to their CSR policies suggest that either those policies are not enough to tackle the endemic problems of the industry or simply a concerted effort between companies and government is needed. Issues of deforestation and child labor continue to plague the cocoa and chocolate industry, and recent articles suggest that not even labels like Fairtrade, can escape the scandals. We explore the relationship between CSR strategies and responsible governance in terms of the effect the former has on the later when it comes to fundamental rights and regulatory enforcement, in a theoretical framework of CSR and Business Responsibilities for Human Rights. Using the connection between them we identify whether CSR can influence Responsible Governance. Using data regarding the responsible governance variables chosen and using one of the biggest voluntary initiatives taken by companies (CocoaAction 2014) we’re trying to see if the initiative has any effect on the two chosen variables. Based on the outcome of the quantitative analysis we then employ qualitative methods Small-N case studies to identify whether the result from the analysis is true and what are the factors that impact the relationship between CSR strategies and responsible governance. Through our discussion of the topic we realize that the effect of CSR strategies on Responsible Governance, is dependent on the impact of factors that define the cases at hand and at best the effect is ambiguous. At first look the outcome corroborated with the historical data, offers an answer on the plausibility of some CSR measures succeeding.