Richardson, Benjamin J. --- "Africa: From Object to Agent of Socially Responsible Investment" [2011] ELECD 409; in Botchway, N. Francis (ed), "Natural Resource Investment and Africa’s Development" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Natural Resource Investment and Africa’s Development

Editor(s): Botchway, N. Francis

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446793

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Africa: From Object to Agent of Socially Responsible Investment

Author(s): Richardson, Benjamin J.

Number of pages: 44

Extract:

8. Africa: from object to agent of
socially responsible investment*
Benjamin J. Richardson

1 INTRODUCTION

Africa has been the stage for some of the most epic campaigns of the long-
standing movement for socially responsible investment (SRI). Ethical
investors were prominent voices in the struggle against the slave trade
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as crucial participants
in the anti-apartheid campaign concerning South Africa, especially during
the 1970s and 1980s. While Africa was essentially an object of, rather than
an actor in, these ethical investment crusades, its seminal contribution
appears often to be ignored or misunderstood in a movement that has
tended to be associated primarily with the financial markets of Western
Europe and North America. Africa has remained mostly on the periphery
of the recent expansion of SRI activities worldwide, being neither a major
market for social investors nor a rousing concern of the movement.1
It is vital both to recognise the African contribution to the evolution of
SRI and to reflect on how SRI can play a more influential and constructive
role in addressing the social and environmental challenges of the conti-
nent today. We need to appreciate that historical contribution, especially
the anti-apartheid campaign, for it can help us understand how ethical
investors should act when Africa is an `object' of their benevolence. When
international investors wish to advocate social and environmental reform
in Africa, they must be mindful of how they identify, define and prioritise
their SRI agenda, for what ...