{"id":2368,"date":"2019-01-29T11:59:43","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T17:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=2368"},"modified":"2019-01-29T11:59:43","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T17:59:43","slug":"a-place-at-the-global-development-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2019\/01\/29\/a-place-at-the-global-development-table\/","title":{"rendered":"A Place at the (Global Development) Table"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo of country flags on a building for the 2018 World Economic Forum meeting. Photo by GovernmentZA, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each year in January, the <\/span>World Economic Forum<\/span><\/a> hosts its <\/span>annual meeting<\/span><\/a> in the Swiss resort town of Davos. The event brings together state leaders, business tycoons, and philanthropists who cultivate relationships between governments and businesses, all with the hope of guiding <\/span>global progress<\/span><\/a>. This year, the annual meeting made headlines for featuring a <\/span>Somalian refugee<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Mohammed Hassan Mohamud<\/span>, as one of the event\u2019s seven co-chairs. This inclusion marks another stage of a contested history of international business, development, and intervention in the Global South<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the Global South, colonialism altered or destroyed local systems, such as food production. Agriculture was restructured to serve colonial powers, which often forced farmers to produce cash crops (like coffee or cotton) instead of food for their own consumption. Over time, knowledge about cultivating local crops was lost. In the aftermath of colonialism, many countries have faced challenges in remaking their agricultural sectors. Businesses and governments from the Global North have sought to have a role in this restructuring. Investors and technological innovators partner to develop new foods, often suggesting genetically modified crops as a solution to hunger. Many scholars, however, raise concerns about the cultural loss of replacing local produce with imported goods that look and taste different. Others assert that such approaches do not address the power inequities that lead to hunger.<\/h5>\n