Understanding the concept of food sovereignty using the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP)

This article deepens the understanding of the emerging food sovereignty concept using a case study of a home-grown school feeding programme that promotes local food demand – supply linkages. A school feeding programme in four selected districts in Ghana is analysed with respect to community involvement in programme implementation and management as well as its socio-economic impacts. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches was used in data collection and analysis. Results showed a significant improvement in household food access and months of adequate household food provisioning, which were used as measurement proxies for food sovereignty, as a result of access to local market created by the Ghana School Feeding Programme. However, the study recommends more empirical evidence from research to support the claim that using locally produced food for school feeding actually reduces poverty and malnutrition in rural farming communities.     

Corporate social responsibility recognition and support for the arts: Evidence from European financial institutions

This research investigates whether financial institutions that have gained a good reputation in relation to their CSR activities also engage in significant corporate support for the arts (CSA). Using a sample composed of the 42 largest listed European financial institutions, data from 2004 to 2013 (i.e., 420 firm-year observations) and manually collected CSA disclosure information, our findings indicate that entities rewarded for their CSR initiatives are also those that engage in significant CSA. We also find that CSA disclosure reported in the social reports of financial institutions is a predictor for the attainment of a CSR award, whereas that reported in annual reports is not. Our findings suggest that annual and social reports have a different informative relevance, at least in relation to CSR initiatives in the form of CSA, for the stakeholders of financial institutions. Thus, our results provide useful insights for companies’ communication strategies showing, for example, that social reports are the best channel to communicate about CSA.