Business Action for Africa’s 2010 Report, produced with the CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School, examines how business- driven partnerships are addressing Africa’s development challenges in new and innovative ways, redrawing the boundaries of what is possible, and creating new frontiers for sustainable development and growth on the continent.
Drawing on detailed case studies from BAA member companies and the Harnessing the Power of Business for Development Impact event series, supported by Business Action for Africa, UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the CSR Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School, the report addresses four challenge areas—enterprise development, regional integration and trade, human development, and environmental sustainability— and examines the role of business and what can be achieved in collaboration with others. It lays out ways companies can contribute through core business activity, social investment, and public policy dialogue. And it finds that partnership can help achieve greater scale and impact by:
• Enabling—and deepening the development impact of—core business activity
• Making social investment more sustainable and systemic
• Strengthening and enhancing the credibility of public policy inputs.
At a time when partnership models are evolving in scope and complexity, this report also suggest an agenda for learning and action for those interested in increasing the reach and impact of business partnerships for development.
Zahid Torres-Rahman
Director, Business Action for Africa
Jane Nelson
Senior Fellow and Director, Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, Harvard Kennedy School
Post by Andrew Mitchell MP, Secretary of State, Department for International Development (DFID)
It is my firm belief that wealth creation, jobs and livelihoods above all will help poor people to lift themselves out of poverty. If you are committed to reducing poverty, you have to believe in economic development and growth. For every extra percentage point of growth in Africa more schools can be built to educate children, more health facilities will be available for the sick and more safe drinking water will be supplied to communities.
Above all, we need growth that is broad-based, inclusive and sustainable; in which all people benefit from the proceeds of prosperity; and in which even the poorest have access to the opportunities and markets that it creates. As the engine of that growth, the private sector can make a vital contribution, by creating new jobs, new trade and enterprise opportunities, new markets, and new prosperity.
For a country to grow, it has to be part of the global goods and services market, and it must also be able to access global capital. The private sector holds the key to that integration and also to the game changing innovations, described in this report, that create new opportunities for the world’s poor to access the goods and services that can transform their lives. At a time of slow growth in many developed markets, it is also worth remembering that developing countries represent a huge growing market.
That is why at the recent UN MDG Summit in New York, I joined ten other Development Ministers in endorsing a commitment to strengthen our work with the private sector, and also why I have committed to create a new Private Sector Department within the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). I want to send the clearest of signals that I believe business has a vital role to play in achieving the MDGs.
I intend to bring a new energy to Britain’s promotion of wealth creation in development and to reconfigure my department to meet this challenge. We are now working to recast DFID as a government department that understands the private sector and has at its disposal the right tools to support a vibrant, resilient and growing business sector in the poorest countries. I want the new Private Sector Department to be the place that defines, lives and breathes the new DFID culture of private sector-led development, an example for other development bodies to follow.
DFID also needs to take the opportunity to learn from business. I want to explore how we might enrich DFID’s own talent pool with a series of short-term secondments from the private sector in order to inject new, business-savvy DNA into the department. I also want the new department to bring together representatives from business to help us find bold and creative solutions to development challenges.
Over the coming months, I look forward to working closely with the business community to take forward this ambitious new agenda.
Post by Graham Baxter, Global Programmes Director, International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF)
We have reached a tipping point in the way business sees its relationship with the developing world. A growing number of businesses, from large multi-nationals to small-sized start-ups, are moving beyond philanthropic, risk-mitigating CSR focused activities, to find new ways to do business that benefit both the poor and their core business.
We are seeing a growing momentum behind the adoption of “inclusive business models” by many companies that expand access to goods, services, and livelihood opportunities for low- income communities, alongside an increased willingness and interest by companies in committing business thinking and capacity to shared development challenges, especially in Africa.
As this report demonstrates, effective collaboration and partnerships between the various sectors of society are now a critical success factor in the development and implementation of inclusive business approaches, and create a powerful means for us to think in new ways about how to tackle some of the most intractable and daunting development challenges.
As the scope and complexity of cross-sector partnerships grow, new models of collaboration are emerging that offer the potential to transform the scale and outcomes of existing approaches. For example, business to business partnerships are creating opportunities for companies to share resources to address shared systemic challenges in an integrated way, working with civil society and government partners. An example is the close collaboration referenced in this report between companies and customs organisations in East Africa to speed up the cross-border movement of goods, which is key to increasing levels of intra-regional trade.
We are also seeing donors and governments recognising the new opportunities and a growing willingness to work with business across a wide range of issues and geographies, helping to share the risks, supporting progress to create stable and well functioning regulatory environments which business needs to flourish, and contributing their deep knowledge and convening power to generate momentum and broader-based support.
To sustain momentum, we need to invest more time and resource in building our capacity to partner, learn new skills and be willing to experiment, and sometimes to fail. We know that partnerships will fail unless there is transparency, mutual advantage and equity amongst those engaged in collaborative action. These qualities are not “givens” but must be consciously and deliberately maintained by all partners to achieve maximum returns.
Developing new forms of collaboration requires experimentation and is often a risky, complex and messy business, requiring those involved to leave behind their comfort zones - in short, to lead, but as we can see in this report and through our own experiences, the challenges can be overcome and the rewards can be significant.
Post by Dame Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive, Oxfam GB
Working with others lies at the heart of all Oxfam’s efforts to overcome poverty and suffering worldwide. It is only by building relationships to support the actions of poor and marginalised people and communities that the necessary conditions will be created for sustainable change and development.
Oxfam is increasingly engaging with business in recognition of the critical role that the private sector can play in delivering positive development outcomes, particularly when they invest in sectors or regions that are important for growth, job creation, women’s empowerment and poverty reduction.
For example, in Ethiopia, Oxfam and its partners are working with Ambrosia, a honey-processing company, which has invested in a training school to give local women access to new skills and technology. With the help of loans from micro-finance institutions, women have been able to invest in new types of beehive, boosting productivity and increasing household incomes. In north-west Tanzania, Oxfam is working with a sisal processing, manufacturing and marketing company to set up 15 small processing plants in local villages. Up to 8,100 smallholders, processors and their families will benefit.
When working together, the motivations of business and civil society organisations will not always be fully aligned. However, joint action, guided by a clear common goal, and based on mutual respect and trust, can produce positive results. Oxfam has identified five key principles for successfully working with others, whether from civil society or business, as follows:
• complementary purpose and added value;
• respect for each other and the contribution that each party brings;
• clarity about roles, responsibilities and decision-making;
• transparency and accountability; and
• commitment and flexibility.
These principles underpin the commitment by Unilever and Oxfam to work together over the next five years to explore, develop and implement innovative sourcing models that link smallholder farmers into Unilever’s supply chain. After pilot studies to validate the feasibility of the project from both commercial and developmental perspectives, we are developing a project in Azerbaijan to source dried vegetables for use in soups and stocks, and working to identify a second country, in Africa, to replicate the same approach. The collaboration draws on Unilever’s expertise in agronomy, technical assistance and, above all, in ensuring sustainable commercial outcomes, together with Oxfam’s experience in gendered community and rural enterprise development, facilitating multi- stakeholder partnerships, improving smallholder services and the enabling environment.
Partnerships aren’t easy; they take time and resources, and require compromise on both sides. Not all NGOs and not all businesses are convinced that the potential benefits of working together outweigh the costs and risks. But Oxfam’s experience to date has produced both some interesting learning and tangible positive impacts.
Dear Fellows and Friends:
I am thankful for this report. Back in the year of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in
South Africa the former Chairman of the UN Kofi Annan promoted the Type Two Partnership. Governments, Non-profits (University and Tax Exempts) and For-profit Businesses were encouraged to partner in various ways, from a handshake agreement to Memorandum of Understandings and Contracts. These were to be
less formal than high level agreements like may come out of the CoP 16 in Cancun…or not. I believe that the Type Two Partnership may permit pilot projects and even without complete consensus quick start projects for real benefit now. Now projects can begin with designed in Monitoring and Evaluation for any
adaption by management. Adaptive Management, permits projects and similar to driving a vehicle on the road, adjustments at times are needed or a change in direction or a stop is needed.
We are looking for collaborators and partnering to coordinage with the Sustainalbe Energy Center of Excellence for Sub Sahara Africa. A favor of a conversation is requested. - Sidney Clouston
cloustonenergy@aol.com
We need people who think broadly and who understnd systems, connections, patterns, and root causes.In Africa it is very possible to illimniate poverty to its lowest level. It is possible by expanding the education activities and health conditions.
Sustainability education helps tie curricula-subject areas an processes-together rather than developing new curricula. Sustaibanility education helps students learn how to think systems and how to find connections. It teaches students how and whwn to ask the hbig questions, and how to separate the trival from the important. sustainability education brings a variety of processes to develop thinking skills by:
- Demonestrating interconnections among disciplines.
- Focusing on real-world issues addressed from various perspectives.
- Examining the complexity of issues that are viewed in terms of ecological systems.
economic structure, and community dynamics.
So, an organizing theme to develop integrated thinking towards the development efforts of the people of Africans is very crucial for fast increasing development.Rich countries, rich individuals, rich private organizations etc… are all mandated to contribute for the efforts of development in Africa.