Inclusive Business and Food Nutrition Security in Ethiopia: A case study on the contributions of six Dutch inclusive agribusinesses to Food Nutritition Security in Ethiopia

Abstract

Today, about 4,5 billion are living in poverty worldwide. Theorists of inclusive business approach have claimed that such group of people represent an asset to businesses to scale company operations while contrasting poverty. This approach is expected to play a critical role in reconnecting private sector with public, civil actors in the fight against global poverty. Businesses can fight poverty by establishing a double bottom line for profit and poverty reduction goals. Consequently, inclusive business approach found an extensive space in the agendas of development agencies, and international organizations and non-governmental organizations. This model is expected to yield large benefits to poverty reduction worldwide. Yet, researchers have come to criticise this approach and evidences suggest that inclusive business projects are not operationalised without difficulties. In this study, an experimental company scan had been used to build a case study analysis of six Dutch-funded agribusinesses and their contributions to increased FNS in Ethiopia. This research addressed the research question: How do different Dutch inclusive agribusiness investments contribute to FNS for Ethiopian nationals? The NL is chiefly active in Ethiopia to support national development; within Dutch cooperation policy, Ethiopia is one of the candidates for the Aid and Trade Approach, which aims to support poverty reduction via a foreign private sector development. Contributions of different firms spans to the whole spectrum of FNS, i.e food availability, accessibility, use and utilization and stability. Yet, Dutch agribusinesses could hardly mitigate the most pressing issues to the FNS status of Ethiopian nationals, and waged labour opportunities had been found to poorly contribute to FNS.