|
Global South needs greater presence
at international economic policy fora
19.04.2024. By Helen Gavaghan, Bradford.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) must significantly increase direct representation from those living and working in the Global South, says
Constantin Blome, academic dean at Lancaster University, Leipzig*. He is an expert in supply chain management, sustainability and
associated risks. 50:50 would be a good mix of delegates from the global north and south on OECD committees and working parties, Blome told Science, People & Politics.
Professor Blome gave the keynote address on Wednesday this week at the 60th Anniversary Academic Research Conference of the School of Management at Bradford University.
Blome focussed, as an example of the need to engage locally, on the supply chain of conflict minerals. Tantalum, gold, tin and tungsten fall
under such a classification. The name conflict mineral comes from growing concerns during recent decades that profit from selling minerals integral to high value products, such
as mobile phones and electric vehicles, were feeding back into financing conflict in mineral source-countries. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and some other African countries
are of particular concern1. In the US, political worry that war and border skirmishes, many documented in resolutions from the UN Security
Council, were being financed by sale of conflict minerals, has led to a heavy regulatory environment. The main legislation in the US impacting all companies, but most significantly
multi-national enterprises, is the Dodds Frank Act of 20102. Primarily, The Act seeks to reign in practises which contributed to the global financial
crisis of 2007-08, but it also imposes strict conditions to investigate the source of conflict minerals and to know their chain of custody, clarifying if they come, for example, from
recycling, or are conflict related. The EU has introduced law addressing the same issues.
Blome's take home message, culled from experience with the Dodds-Frank Act, was that good intentions are not enough. A company such as Apple might outsource more than 90 percent
of its endeavour, and take NGO and distributor advice in its implementation of due diligence. Yet the Apple's of this World need to be much more hands on. The conference heard
that major corporations need much more direct contact with source suppliers, and also possibly to bring in-house more of the due diligence related to product inputs.
The theme of relationships between and among the local, national, regional and international in the field of management threaded through the conference, with speakers from
around the UK and internationally. All had strong links to Bradford University and its 60th anniversary celebration of its school of management.
David Weir, one-time director of Bradford Management Centre and then of Bradford's School of Management, topped and tailed the event with the closing address. Professor Weir
has had a varied high-level academic career, teaching
business and management on every continent except Antarctica. "Management solves problems", he told delegates, and it is important for schools of management to be embedded in and aware of their local community. "The local", he said, "is what you can see out of the window." Curently Weir holds a senior academic position in Jordan. Now in his mid 80s, Professor Weir told the conference of two of his current women doctoral students from Gaza. The thesis of one examines women entrepreneurs in Gaza; the other PhD student is exploring how to internationalise Gaza's economy. Now much of their time is spent on phone calls to see if their families are still alive, Weir told delgates.
In essence both Weir and Blome had the same message for delegates about managing a business, and that was expressed most cogently by Weir, when he said, "Think like the world you are in."
*
Substantive correction to the paragraph below made by Helen Gavaghan 26.04.2024
Contributions from Simone Hammer. At the request of Helen Gavaghan, Ms Hammer clarified with Dean Blome that by "Lancaster University Leipzig", as stated in the conference
programme, the reference was to a campus
of the University of Lancaster in Leipzig, and not the other way round. Ms Hammer drew to my attention that co-creation emerged during the conference as a significant theme. See as
subject reference, for example, "Value co-creation practices in business-to-business platform ecosystems."
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12525-019-00337-y
1. A Conflict Mineral Report dated the end of 2014 from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1054374/000105437415000089/conflictmineralsreport.htm
2. The Dodds-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
https://www.congress.gov/111/plaws/publ203/PLAW-111publ203.pdf
Further Reading
US Securities and Exchange Commission. Disclosing the use of conflict minerals. Fact Sheet.
https://www.sec.gov/opa/Article/2012-2012-163htm---related-materials.html
OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct
https://www.oecd.org/investment/due-diligence-guidance-for-responsible-business-conduct.htm
|