Nojeem Amodu

INTRODUCTION

The fact that Africa is one of the worst performing regions in global audits about long-term development trends is longer news. The continent has repeatedly missed targets set by the United Nations and there are concerns it might just be left behind in the attainment of the latest 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development set by world leaders in 2015. With a view to complementing states’ responsibilities towards the provision of public goods and social services useful to actualize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa, this article interrogates the nature of multinational corporations (MNCs) and juxtaposing the non-state actor responsibilities within wider societal contexts with state duties in advancing the SDGs. The article not only sets the tone for a “new corporate social responsibility” in terms of improved pursuit of sustainability within business communities in corporate Africa, it also recommends workable measures, integrating progressive roles for both the state and MNCs towards the realization of the SDGs on the continent.

Keywords: Corporate Responsibility; MNCs; SDGs in Africa; New CSR Roles; Regional Integration.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jsdlp.v11i2.5

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Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Email: nojeem.amodu@uct.ac.za

Idowu Ajibade*, Michael Egge**, and Arun Pallathadka***

ABSTRACT

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2) contains a global commitment to “end hunger, achieve food security, and promote sustainable agriculture” by 2030. The realization of this goal under the current global political economy, climate change trends, and national realities is a daunting challenge. In this article, we draw on political ecology theory to examine the complex ecological, economic, geopolitical, climatic, and socially-induced barriers that threaten the achievement of SDG 2 in two oil producing countries with a high dependency on food imports: Qatar and Nigeria. First, we provide an overview of barriers to global food security and sustainable agriculture by discussing how the unevenness of power and resource distribution, reduced genetic diversity, land grabs, restrictive property rights, and the control of stable food production by big agri-businesses, all served to undermine hunger reduction and food security in the last 20 years. Second, drawing on.

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* Lead author: Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Portland State University, United States of America. Email: jajibade@pdx.edu. ORCID: 0000- 0002-9767-0435

** DepartmentofGeography,PortlandStateUniversity,USA. *** Department of Geography, Portland State University, USA.