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Éditorial

Jeanne Simard

Le droit international, un levier efficace pour réguler les entreprises multinationales ?

Alimata Diallo
This study examines public international law’s structural inability to provide effective regulation of transnational corporations. Despite their economic clout comparable to that of states, transnational corporations remain indirect actors within international law, which is predicated on state sovereignty and the absence of a binding central authority. The study identifies four major structural constraints: state sovereignty, heterogeneous systems for incorporating international law into domestic law, fragmented oversight mechanisms, and normative competition between states. Adding to that is the persistently ambiguous legal status of transnational corporations and the extent of their liability. The repeated failure to establish binding regulations has led to the widespread use of soft law instruments with limited effectiveness. This paper therefore raises a fundamental question: How can we ensure the democratic accountability of private actors with significant global influence?

Information et environnement : lorsque deux crises se rencontrent

Raymond Corriveau
Information is a fundamental element of social life. It is important to define it and to inventory the rights that are supposed to protect it. However, the foundations of information production in advanced liberal societies are based on business principles that conflict with the ideals of free and quality information. The advances of Web 2.0 offer only limited compensatory avenues. The widespread digitization of societies, largely controlled by a few business empires, has created a funding crisis for traditional media. This media crisis unfolds within the context of an environmental imperative – an unprecedented challenge in human history: the Anthropocene. Although the media should be able to contribute to developing a reflective society capable of addressing this major issue, they are doomed to exacerbate the environmental crisis, due to the information they disseminate and their funding structures.

La crise écologique et le développement des communautés territoriales : huit cas de démarches de transition socioécologique au Québec

René Lachapelle, Denis Bourque, Sonia Racine, Geneviève Le Dorze-Cloutier, Lucie Morin and André-Anne Parent
The crisis facing our ecosystem has made socio-ecological transition (SET) a priority for local community development initiatives. Although SET is a key concern in each of the eight Quebec areas where we conducted our research, the concept has yet to be fully embraced. The main concern is that the most vulnerable citizens, who bear little responsibility for the current climate crisis, will bear the brunt of the ecological burden. SET initiatives primarily focus on agri-food production, food self-sufficiency, housing and land-use planning, and depend on both the available human and financial resources and the elected officials’ support. The shift from a growth-based economy to a more sustainable economy must necessarily involve the lands that are closest to citizens, as well as municipalities and participatory democracy.

L’analyse des coûts climatiques et des outils de pilotage stratégique dans les organisations paysannes et les organisations non gouvernementales à Bamako, au Mali

Mamadou Lamine Goïta, Soboua Thera and Ousmane Ouattara
This study examines how farmers’ organizations (FOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Bamako, Mali, are responding to the effects of climate change with limited resources. Through a qualitative approach based on a literature review and interviews, the study shows that, despite a growing strategic awareness of climate issues, the latter are not fully integrated into budgets and planning, and the operational capability remains weak. As a remedy, expanding training on climate management tools and institutionalizing their use is recommended. The study emphasizes the need for more resilient governance to tackle environmental challenges in a sustainable manner.

Entre mission sociale et résistance au changement : les défis du microcrédit dans les pays en développement – Le cas du Cameroun

Jean Roger Mfelam
This paper examines how stakeholders in microfinance institutions (MFIs) perceive microcredit supply policy in the developing country of Cameroon. The study was conducted between November 2024 and March 2025, based on a series of semi-structured interviews with both beneficiary customers and MFI managers. The results show a marked discrepancy between customer expectations and how they are interpreted by managers, who often tend to downplay or reword the concerns expressed. Such an attitude, which can be seen as a subtle form of resistance to change, hinders the fulfillment of the original social mission of MFIs and illustrates the structural challenges facing microcredit in developing countries.

Défis de la qualité des données pour l’analyse de l’abordabilité alimentaire dans les pays du Sahel central, en Afrique de l’Ouest

Soufianou Moussa, Cabrelle Lauriane Dzoukou Homsi, Rokhaya Cissé and Saidou Magagi
Food and nutrition insecurity is a major concern for West African countries, especially in the Central Sahel region, which includes Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Analyzing access to healthy and nutritious food in that area requires high-quality data, and the inclusion of “food affordability,” in addition to traditional data, further increases this need for high-quality data. This study is based on a food affordability analysis model and uses metadata from the three countries to assess the quality of the available data. The results show persisting major deficiencies, particularly in agricultural, trade, and market data, which are often missing, inaccessible or incomplete. Although a satisfactory level of harmonization is achieved for some of the variables, disaggregation remains inadequate. The analysis shows that making data comparable and accessible is a challenge that needs to be tackled by setting up a common, structured data collection system for Central Sahel.

Faciliter la transition vers les contenants réutilisables en restauration : une étude de cas dans une petite municipalité du Québec

Marie Bellemare, Sophie Bernard and Virginie Francoeur
This exploratory case study investigates the factors influencing the willingness of restaurants, cafés and caterers in the small community of Prévost, Quebec, Canada, to adopt a system for reusing takeout food containers, considering the escalating global plastic crisis. A qualitative analysis was conducted through interviews and observations. This research highlights the complex interaction between operational challenges (costs, logistics, hygiene) and customer-related behavioural factors (need for simplicity and convenience), revealing the crucial importance of adapting the system’s value proposition to the specific needs of businesses. To overcome the challenges identified, we emphasize the necessity for a collaborative approach that actively involves the municipality, restaurant owners and consumers, a synergy essential to developing tailor-made solutions and significantly reducing food packaging waste.

Raymond Corriveau, Professeur retraité au Département de lettres et communication sociale à l’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR) et ancien président du Conseil de presse du Québec

Jeanne Simard

Sébastien Desaulniers, Coordonnateur du Collectif québécois de la Coalition pour une saine alimentation scolaire, qui est porteur du projet Chantier pour un programme d’alimentation scolaire universel au Québec

France Desjardins