This book investigates the relationship that Multinational Corporations form with Local Authorities and governments in West Africa. It argues that informal partnerships at the local level can provide significant socioeconomic benefits to communities and overcome shortfalls in state provision of infrastructure and collective goods and services. Drawing on in-depth case studies in Niger, Ghana and Liberia, the book demonstrates that Decentralized Partnerships benefit from lower transaction costs while maintaining profitability and investment protection, whereas in formal relationships between multinationals and local government, asset specificity and uncertainty are high. By complying with informal rules, which are in many ways just as restrictive as formal rules, Multinational Corporations can adapt and acculturate themselves, become actors of territorial authorities and can get around the incompleteness of the contract that binds them to the state. Reflecting on a range of local projects (educational, infrastructural, health, micro-financial, entrepreneurial), this book provides a rich and detailed assessment of the interactions between Local Authorities and Multinational Firms. The book will be useful to upper-level students and researchers across the fields of economics, business, sociology, anthropology and African studies as well as to development practitioners and regional and international organizations with interest in the functioning of Multinational Corporations in local environments.

The Definitive Guide to Doing Business in Africa For global and Africa-based companies looking to access new growth markets, Africa offers exciting opportunities to build large, profitable businesses. Its population is young, fast-growing, and increasingly urbanized--while rapid technology adoption makes the continent a fertile arena for innovation. But Africa's business environment remains poorly understood; it's known to many executives in the West only by its reputation for complexity, conflict, and corruption. Africa's Business Revolution provides the inside story on business in Africa and its future growth prospects and helps executives understand and seize the opportunities for building profitable, sustainable enterprises. From senior leaders in McKinsey's African offices and a leading executive on the continent, this book draws on in-depth proprietary research by the McKinsey Global Institute as well as McKinsey's extensive experience advising corporate and government leaders across Africa. Brimming with company case studies and exclusive interviews with some of Africa's most prominent executives, this book comes to life with the vibrant stories of those who have navigated the many twists and turns on the road to building successful businesses on the continent. Combining an unrivalled fact base with expert advice on shaping and executing an Africa growth strategy, this book is required reading for global business executives looking to expand their existing operations in Africa--and for those seeking a road map to access this vast, untapped market for the first time.

Multinational Cooperation for Development in West Africa discusses the obstacles and prospects of organizations that were formed to facilitate considerable cooperation in the developing countries of West Africa. The book describes and analyzes the cooperation movement and the United Nations system and role in fostering the process of cooperation in West Africa. A brief overview of West African characteristics; trends and analysis of development; history of the cooperation movement; issues regarding cooperation in West Africa; potentialities of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); and the impact of the United Nations on the growth of cooperation in the subregion are elucidated in the text. Students of international studies, researchers, economists, sociologists, political leaders of the West African region, and the staff of United Nations agencies will find this book invaluable.

Since the terrorist attacks on the American homeland on September 11, 2001, fighting the menace has become the frontier issue on the U.S.’ national security agenda. In the case of the African Continent, the United States has, and continues to accord major attention to the West African sub-region. This book : Evaluates where we can place West Africa within the broader crucible of the U.S. war on terrorism Establishes the key elements of the U.S.’ counter-terrorism policy in West Africa? Examines the U.S. counter-terrorism strategies in West Africa, and evaluates if they are being pursued both at the bilateral and multilateral levels in the region Interrogates the relationship between stability in the sub-region and the waging of the U.S.’ war on terrorism. Specifically, the book examines the crises of underdevelopment—cultural, economic, environmental, political, security and social—in the sub-region, especially their impact on shaping the conditions that provide the taproots of terrorism. Clearly, addressing these multidimensional crises of underdevelopment is pivotal to the success of the U.S. war on terrorism in the sub-region. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of terrorism, homeland security, African Studies, conflict management, and political violence.

This bold and ambitious handbook is the first systematic overview of the history of development ideas, themes, and actors in the twentieth century. Taking stock of the field, the book reflects on blind spots, points out avenues for future research, and brings together a greater plurality of regions, actors, and approaches than other publications on the subject. The book offers a critical reassessment of how historical experiences have shaped contemporary understandings of development, demonstrating that the seemingly self-evident concept of development has been contingent on a combination of material conditions, power structures, and policy choices at different times and in different places. Using a world history approach, the handbook highlights similarities in development challenges across time and space, and it pays attention to the meanings of ideological, cultural, and economic divides in shaping different understandings and practices of development. Taking a thematic approach, the book shows how different actors – governments, non-governmental organizations, individuals, corporations, and international organizations – have responded to concerns regarding the conditions in their own or other societies, such as the provision of education, health, or food; approaches to infrastructure development and industrialization; the adjustment of social conditions; population policies and migration; and the maintenance of stability and security. Bringing together a range of voices from across the globe, this book will be perfect for advanced students and researchers of international development history.

This work presents case-studies of the emergence and evolution of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) based in eleven developed and developing countries of widely divergent patterns of national development. From this analysis, Tolentino develops a comprehensive theory of the emergence and evolution of MNCs from a macroeconomic perspective.

Although much literature on human trafficking focuses on sex trafficking, a great deal of human trafficking results from migrant workers, compelled - by economic deprivation in their home countries - to seek better life opportunities abroad, especially in agriculture, construction and domestic work. Such labour migration is sometimes legal and well managed, but sometimes not so – with migrant workers frequently threatened or coerced into entering debt bondage arrangements and ending up working in forced labour situations producing goods for illicit markets. This book fills a substantial gap in the existing literature given that labour trafficking is a much more subtle form of exploitation than sex trafficking. It discusses how far large multinational corporations are involved, whether intentionally or unintentionally, in human trafficking for the purposes of labour exploitation. They explore how far corporations are driven to seek cheap labour by the need to remain commercially competitive and examine how the problem often lies with corporations’ subcontractors, who are not as well controlled as they might be. The essays in the volume also outline and assess measures being taken by governments and international agencies to eradicate the problem.