Privatizing welfare in the countryside? The case of large-scale land investments

In recent years the countryside has made it once again to the center stage of national and international development politics. Since the early 2000s, there has been an increase in the price of raw materials and in investments in land and its associated resources like minerals and metals. Two peaks of this trend occurred in the years 2008-2009 and 2011-2012 (Akram-Lodhi 2012; Dietz and Engels 2020). This has sparked conflicts in the countryside in many countries across the Global South where not just the outcome of singular projects is negotiated and contested but sometimes also wider visions for the countryside, as well as questions of democratic participation or the legitimacy of governments. Against this backdrop, I would like to make three arguments. First, I argue that the latest waves of land enclosures have put a new player on the stage of social welfare provision in the countryside, namely private international companies who took over large tracts of land to implement agro-industrial projects or industrial mines. International organisations, bilateral donors, transnational NGOs or religious organisations have long been prominent actors in all aspects of development. Private companies have mainly been involved as service providers or in public-private partnerships. In the past two decades however, companies, particularly in the mining sector have adapted corporate social responsibility programs in response to international critics and local protests, which often includes providing welfare services to local communities in the countryside. Second, I argue that such large land investments by private companies may also have an impact on other international actors active in development cooperation by providing positive or negative incentives to become engaged in the area impacted by the companies’ activities. And third I argue that corporate social responsibility programs carried out by private companies can undermine the state’s legitimacy in rural areas. I illustrate my arguments by looking at two case studies of large-scale land investments for mining and agro-industry in Senegal. Research for the case studies was carried out during 5 months of field work in Senegal from 2014-2016 as well as through long distance communication tools from 2017 until 2020.