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Paper short abstract:

By initiating CSR projects, transnational corporations appear as donors in developing host countries. Do they cooperate with the recipients? A case study from Ghana underlines local actors' chances of participating in CSR decision-making, when specific governance mechanisms are in place.

Paper long abstract:

Recently, close cooperation between donors and recipients of any form of development assistance became a catchphrase in the scientific and societal development discourse. Within this discourse, the interactions and relationships between old and new, global Southern and global Northern, global and local level actors are at stake. Among the stakeholders receiving increasing attention as development actors are private sector entities, which appear as donors when establishing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in global Southern host countries - an approach praised in particular by the transnational extractive industries. Against this background, this study asks which actors, besides the transnational corporations, influence and guide decision-making processes concerning CSR interventions in countries of operation, paying special attention to domestic actors such as government agencies and local communities as recipients. More precisely, it investigates the governance and stakeholder relations that underlie CSR projects by four transnational oil corporations in the rural Western Region of Ghana. Data, derived from qualitative surveys in form of interviews and focus groups in Ghana, are analysed based on governance recommendations provided in constructivist theories such as the agency theory and the policy mobility discourse. The core results from the Ghanaian case study draw attention to the significance of pro-active local actor involvement, strong personalities among local stakeholders as promotor, and specific forms of leverage and bargaining power. Furthermore, the concept of CSR in the corporations' home countries and the company's internal idea of CSR play a critical role regarding the inclusion of domestic local actors in CSR decision-making processes.