Building Trust in Stakeholder Communication for Agbiotech Projects: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa...
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Building Trust in Stakeholder Communication for Agbiotech Projects: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa Obidimma Ezezika and Justin Mabeya Sandra Rotman Centre,
Building Trust in Stakeholder Communication for Agbiotech
Projects: Lessons from sub-Saharan Africa Obidimma Ezezika and
Justin Mabeya Sandra Rotman Centre, University Health Network and
University of Toronto Paper presented at the 16 th ICABR Conference
128 th EAAE Seminar, Ravello, Italy, June 24-27, 2012
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Overview Introduction Methodology Results and discussion
Conclusions
Slide 3
Why trust and communication? Distrust between the public and
the private sector partners. The public sector views the intentions
of the private sector with suspicion The private sector views the
public sector as slow, inefficient and resistant to change This has
been attributed to limited communication Introduction
Slide 4
BeforeAfter Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) eggplants under field
trials uprooted by local authorities of Davao City in
Philippines
Slide 5
The purpose Conducted 8 case studies across Africa to
understand the role of trust in the agbiotech partnership Data
collection and analysis Data collection (2009-2011) by stakeholder
interviews, project documents and literature and direct
observations Analysis was based on recurring emergent themes from
the interviews, documents and observations Methodology
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Bt Cotton, Burkina Faso Bt Cowpea, Nigeria, Ghana Virus
Resistant Cassava for Africa, Uganda Insect Resistant Maize for
Africa, Kenya Bt Cotton, East Africa Methodology Here we present
preliminary findings from 5 case studies from East and West Africa
On Building trust in stakeholder communication for agbiotech
projects
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Results and discussions
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Challenges Disagreement around the GM technology Limited
understanding Poor fundingLow priorityMedia influece Challenges to
stakeholder communication
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1.Disagreement around the GM technology o Between the
proponents and opponents of the GM technology, e.g. in IRMA
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2.Limited understanding and or information o Even.the
scientists and the researchers, are having a hard time in
understanding and trusting that this [GM crops] will be good An
interviewee of Bt cotton EA 3.Poor funding for communication and
outreach, which limits the amount and quality of information
available to the public 4.Low priority - o the communication and
outreach component is somehow weak....and a lot more emphasis has
been laid on the product development An interviewee of VIRCA
Challenges to stakeholder communication
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5.Media influece o people therefore perceive them [private
sector and the multinationals] the way...the media has portrayed
them A scientist from IRMA Kenyan under fire for allowing import of
GMOs Published on 03/07/2011 By David Musyoka and Peter Mutai
Challenges to stakeholder communication
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Practices for effective agbiotech communication 1.Provide clear
and correct information in the public domain o get enough correct
information out there [in the public] IRMA interviewee 2.In-build
communication early in project life o communication and other
components should be brought on board at ago [concurrently] and
move consistently VIRCA interviewee 3.Communicate the benefits of
the technology to the farmers o tell them [farmers] the benefits
you are getting from this technology and the shortcomings, it will
work Bt cotton EA
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4.Present harmonized information to the farmers o For example:
the National Biotechnology Awareness Creation Strategy (BioAware
Kenya) 5.Use multiple channels to communicate with stakeholders
Practices for effective agbiotech communication 6.Provide training
for stakeholders o Journalists and extension officers and
scientists on how to communicate Bt cotton Burkina Faso and
IRMA
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Practices for effective agbiotech communication 7.Demonstrate
transparency o Let them know what problems there are, the risks
there are and let them know what risk mitigation strategies are
there A scientist from IRMA
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Conclusions Challenges to stakeholder communication were
observed, as practices to strengthen stakeholder trust were
overlooked This contributes to distrust between the public and the
agbiotech partnership Communication practices should be considered
early in project development to ensure trust is enhanced among
stakeholders and partnership is sustained
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Thank you! Additional funding partners listed at
www.mrcglobal.org