Building effective agbiotech partnerships founded on trust: a summary of the challenges and practices in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The potential for improving the efficiency and success of partnerships in agricultural biotechnology is contingent on the presence of trust. As Stephen Covey (2006) asserts in his book The Speed of Trust, trust is the basis of the new global economy and is an essential element of any successful organization [1]. The presence of trust is particularly important in public-private partnerships (PPPs), in which partners with varied interests, goals, and operating principles embark on complex tasks within innovative ventures. Even more crucial is the role of trust in the success of agbiotech initiatives led by PPPs. This is cited throughout the literature on trust and has been confirmed by numerous agricultural stakeholders who participated in our case studies of agbiotech PPPs in Africa [2-9]. Stakeholders linked project successes with the establishment and maintenance of trust throughout the duration of their respective partnerships. When trust was broken or nonexistent in the partnerships, stakeholders reported an evident negative impact on the partnerships. In several cases, stakeholders cited instances in which the erosion of trust led to severed ties among stakeholders of the project or to slow progression of certain phases of the projects, such as product development or biosafety approval. From meeting with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) maize farmers in South Africa and Egypt to chatting with Bt cotton farmers in Burkina Faso and regulators in Tanzania, several key lessons were derived on trust building for improving success in innovative PPP projects in subSaharan Africa. This was accomplished through direct observations, face-to-face interviews, and review of project documents. Public suspicion of the private sector and genetically modified (GM) technology was cited as a major barrier to building trust between the PPP projects and the public, and, occasionally, between the PPP projects and the regulatory bodies of the government. This challenge was brought up by stakeholders in several case studies, including those conducted in Burkina Faso [3], Nigeria [6] and Kenya [7]. Stakeholders mentioned that the public questions the motive behind the private sector’s involvement in agbiotech projects in Africa; the public suspects that the private sector is being driven solely by the profit motive. This challenge, posed by public suspicion, to establishing trust in the partnership proved more pervasive and difficult to overcome in projects that focused on the cultivation of crops for staple foods for human consumption—such as the Insect Resistance Maize for Africa (IRMA)—than in projects focused on non-food crops, such as the Bt cotton project in Burkina Faso. In some countries such as Burkina Faso and Uganda, the lack of sufficient community engagement during the research, development, and implementation phases of the projects created challenges to building trust in the partnerships [3,8]. Without community engagement, farmers and community members were often left uninformed—and thus, concerned—about the GM crop technology. For example, in Burkina Faso a significant challenge arose when researchers failed to communicate with journalists, who are the conduit through which information reaches the public. Instead of sharing information about the technology, researchers were referring journalists up the bureaucratic ladder [3]. Such disconnect between researchers’ knowledge of the technology and the uninformed community fostered public distrust in the technology and the research and development (R&D) process. This posed a significant challenge to the projects’ further outreach efforts to appeasing a skeptical and apprehensive public. Another challenge to trust building was the slow and often inconsistent regulatory processes through which project partners would have to navigate in order to receive approval for trials and commercialization. This challenge Sandra Rotman Centre, University Health Network and University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Ezezika Agriculture & Food Security 2012, 1(Suppl 1):S9 http://www.agricultureandfoodsecurity.com/content/1/S1/S9