Africa Up Close

Whether you are in South Africa, the United States, Zimbabwe, or Ethiopia, there is an urgent need for dialogue to bridge differences and prevent further societal violence. In South Africa, successful negotiations between liberation movements and the National Party that led to the first democratic government in 1994 did not, unfortunately, also lead to broad acceptance of dialogue and negotiation as a usual practice to bridge social and political differences.

Customers shopping at a grocery store. Photo courtesy of Amy via Flickr Commons. 

Professor Michael Porter, head of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Harvard University School of Business, and Mark Kramer, Managing Director of FSG, a social impact advisory firm, pulled no punches when discussing the deleterious effect that capitalism has on the state of the earth and the relationships between those who inhabit it in a 2011 article in the Harvard Business Review. The blind spot of capitalist business practice, they argue, is the belief that business is all about profit, no matter the effect on the environment, health, or welfare of those affected along the supply chain. They believe that blindly prioritizing profit has underpinned a global loss of trust in business and led some governments to adopt policies that hurt business. They also argue that corporate social responsibility investments have not helped. They often do not yield the expected positive results—not for business or for the communities or projects that should benefit from the investment.

Telia company logo courtesy of Håkan Dahlström via Flickr Commons.

How to marshal the knowledge, resources, and power of the private sector to achieve good social outcomes? This has been a holy grail of many working in the social justice and non-profit sector. It may seem self-evident that achieving good social outcomes—more development, a healthier population and less violence—is in the interests of business. But, that is simply not the case. Alcohol companies that market their products aggressively in poor neighborhoods feed high levels of inter-personal violence and increase risky sexual behavior, both at great cost to the health system and society. And companies producing fast foods and sodas have contributed to high levels of obesity and diabetes globally. These are just two examples of how business interests do not always align with social interests.

United States Flag at half-mast in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy of Ted Eytan via Flickr Commons. 

“Living with violence is not living.” These were the unequivocal words of 17-year-old Raphael Harriohay at the Global Summit to End Violence against Children in Stockholm, Sweden in February 2018. He was speaking on behalf of the children represented at the Summit. His words were uttered around the same time as the Parkland, Florida mass shooting took place, as children from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were hiding under their desks, fleeing their school building, and watching as their teachers and friends were mowed down by gunfire. Over the coming weeks and months, the children of Parkland, Florida will come to know the tragic truth of these words first hand.