Beschreibung:
International oil extractive corporations (IOCs) continue to be a contested feature in the development landscape. Through the lens of skills development, we show that IOC activities under the banner of corporate social responsibility (CSR) remain problematic despite the drive towards multi-stakeholder initiatives designed to enhance IOC compatibility with local needs. Drawing on both CSR and skills development literature we present three phases of what we term IOC CSR incompatibilities: (i) exploitation, (ii) reactive CSR and (iii) multi-stakeholder initiatives. This framing illustrates how parallel trends in CSR and in development approaches to vocational education and skills training have predisposed multi-stakeholder initiatives involving IOCs to operate largely outside of formal skills systems. Drawing on the case of Hoima, Uganda we illustrate that IOC engagement in multi-stakeholder initiatives are not an automatic solution for managing incompatibilities between IOCs and skills requirements in host communities. We suggest that future IOC multi-stakeholder engagements under the banner of CSR could counter such trends if they foreground regional coordination, accountability and local agency, and reconsider the role of philanthropy in prioritising green/renewable technologies and associated green skills