Global philanthropy and welfare capitalism: private-sector approaches to food insecurity

Levels of food insecurity have grown since the COVID-19 pandemic and the new crises of famine, climate emergencies, the war in Ukraine and rising food & fuel prices. As national governments come under pressure to curtail spending, we are seeing the emergence of corporate and private trust fund initiates. This chapter deals with two such phenomena the rise of global philanthropy epitomised by the Gates Foundation (philanthrocapitalism) and secondly the emergence of corporate welfare schemes. Both of these are discussed and while there is something to recommend them they both suffer from a lack of clarity related to the right to food and how to address food insecurity. Philantrocapitalism has a tendency to seek high tech solutions, to focus on health, agriculture and education sectors and to frame interventions as social investment with issues such as the right to food and access not being addressed Private food companies have become aware of the threats to their supply chains and are now in increasing numbers supporting and establishing corporate welfare schemes. Such schemes benefit those in the supply chain but are often limited in their coverage of the wider community. There is a lack of knowledge and understanding of how such schemes operate among health and food insecurity professionals as well as lack of monitoring and regulation. The UN Sustainable Development Goals offer a framework against which to measure the inputs and impacts of philanthrocapitalism and corporate welfare programmes programmes.