Presented by CIPS and the Fragile States Research Network (FSRN)

Multinational corporations are generally considered motors for development in Africa and the Dutch beer giant Heineken is often cited as one of the best examples. Heineken claims Corporate Social Responsibility is at the core of its operations and uses slogans like “Growing Together in Africa” and “Brewing a Better World”. But is this true?

Investigative journalist Olivier van Beemen has spent years seeking the answer and didn’t only discover structural corporate misbehavior, but also some shocking skeletons in Heineken’s African closet, ranging from tax avoidance and high-level corruption to sexual abuse of young women, collaboration with dictators and links to genocide and other human rights violations.

Speakers:

Olivier van Beemen, is an investigative journalist from Amsterdam and the author of the book Heineken in Africa: A Multinational Unleashed (2019) and two other books. For his Heineken investigation, he won the Tegel, the most prestigious award in Dutch journalism, and got nominated for several other prizes. 

Alain Deneault is professor of philosophy at the campus of the Acadian Peninsula at the Université de Moncton. He wrote several books on the ideology of management and on multinational corporations related to the energy and mining industries.

Chair:

Benjamin Zyla currently is Visiting Scholar in the Department of Government at Harvard University and Associate Professor (tenured) of International Affairs in the School of International Development & Global Studies at the University of Ottawa.