Doctoral Dissertation Research: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Transformation of Humanitarian Aid

University Of California-San Francisco, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

Funding for global health programs experienced a period of rapid growth from 2001-2010. Since 2010, the annual rate of funding growth has plateaued as humanitarian aid from development banks and governmental donors stagnates. In this financial landscape, the private (for-profit) sector has become increasingly involved in funding and implementing programs designed to improve global health. In some cases, multinational companies are stepping in to fill local governmental funding needs through their corporate social responsibility programs. This project, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous empirically-grounded scientific fieldwork, explores what role the private sector's increasing involvement in humanitarian and development projects has had in shaping public health programs and the relationship that citizens have to corporations and governments. Clare Cameron, under the supervision of Dr. Ian Whitmarsh of the University of California, San Francisco, examines the current trend toward 'public-private partnerships', collaborations between government and the private sector, as the new model for global health interventions. While the private sector's history of contributing to international development projects can be traced back to the early twentieth century, its current role and influence in shaping global health programs has gone largely unanalyzed. This research explores the implications of this move toward the privatization of public health projects in the context of a mining community in West Papua, Indonesia to ask: How does the increasing role of the private sector in providing public services influence how citizens newly relate to government? What new expectations of the private sector arise when a company, rather than government, is principally responsible for funding public services? As the multinational mining company in West Papua funds the overwhelming majority of health services for the local community, this site is uniquely situated to answer these questions. The researcher will use anthropological methods of participant-observation to join the public health team of a non-governmental organization that coordinates with local government to implement comprehensive community health services funded by the mining company. The researcher will also conduct interviews in two indigenous land-owning communities that are stakeholders in corporate social responsibility efforts. This project will have broader impacts as health policies, both global and domestic, increasingly rely on public-private partnerships, and the potential long-term effects of these collaborations are not well understood. Results from this project are, thus, expected to influence how philanthropists, multinational corporations, and health professionals understand the impacts of contemporary practices of global humanitarianism and international development.