The poverty of ‘poverty reduction’

Africa&s;s ongoing role as a supplier of this industrial raw material to processors including yarn and thread spinners, weavers, dyers and wax printers in Europe and in Asia bears upon the potential for African cotton to durably reduce poverty. As the prospects for further demand growth in China subsequently dimmed, African suppliers of raw cotton who had reoriented their sales to Asia had to peddle their stocks elsewhere. This chapter analyses the complex engagements of the European Union (EU) with official public and private sector players involved with African cotton production and trade. It focuses on the global level or transnational phenomena. In particular, it hones in on global private sector-led governance initiatives. The chapter finally implores Africa&s;s leading cotton experts to turn their attention to neoliberalism at the international, regional and global levels, and away from rear-view mirror studies that simply attempt to differentiate the experiences that Africa&s;s cotton producing countries had with liberalization.