How can we systematically engage business as a partner in development?

I have been engaged with the GPEDC and the development of the monitoring indicator for public-private partnerships in development, but I believe that globally we are focusing too much on measuring 'dialogue' and 'consultations' between government and business as our indicator of engagement. I believe we need to move forward with this. In South Africa as well as in other African countries we are already in the 'action' phase where business is already directly involved in development either as a donor, as an implementer or as a beneficiary of development efforts. In South Africa and Mozambique for example we have already conducted some very interesting impact assessments of the contribution which business have made to national and community development outcomes such as education, housing, health, agriculture, etc. We need much more of this in order to gather empirical evidence and more useful lessons to inform future public-private partnerships for development especially into the post-2015 agenda.

Our research shows a lot of frustration from business about working with the public sector - whether governments or the UN. One challenge is one of mismatching appetites for risk. Business is used to measuring risk and making investments with a return commensurate with that risk. In the public sector, understanding of and appetite for risk is very much lower. It makes it much harder for the public sector to be innovative. For partnerships to scale up, there will need to be a mindset shift with respect to risk-taking.

I think having the skills to partner in house is absolutely essential. We hear this all the time from organizations on their lack of internal capacity to partner Not sure this needs to be one person though. With the high turnover in organizations, this could be high risk. I think you ideally need the skills in key departments including at the highest levels.

Thanks Zahid!

If you are interested in sharing your views on these topics more extensively to help inform TPI's research, please contact me at Jessica.Scholl@thepartneringinitiative.org.

In Panama is something to focus in... Government is not used to work in alliance and companies don't trust them to be a partner

From my side, I'd like to thank Business Fights Poverty, the panellists and all the participants for a really very interesting discussion.

We will certainly draw these comments into the development of the Roadmap.

The rich discussion demonstrates that people have a lot more to contribute - please do take the time to complete the Partnership Roadmap Survey to include more of views in the Roadmap.

Thanks again!

hi interesting thought. First of all: do not underestimate the poor, they have a lot to offer, must be as they have managed to build their own informal mechanisms to survive in poverty and fragile environments. Companies cannot be expected to see these mechanism, and that is why the involvement of local NGOs becomes vital.

Personally don't think philantrophy is the long term answer, and i'd even say, neither is CSR. Governments have key responsibilities to ensure it's people have access to basic facilities and fulfill basic needs. Unfortunately they lack behind in many countries and regions. Still think that, through smart cooperation between business and governments, new innovative business models can come to exist including the most marginalised communities.

And a thank you from me as well. Very interesting discussion.

Mike

Yes, thanks everyone, it has been a great discussion! Thanks Zahid for moderating, and Dave for teeing up the questions! We've had over 1400 views thus far!

If you enjoyed the discussion, please take the survey, and distribute it to your contacts. We hope to have some good data, from all over the world, to inform our recommendations for the roadmap to Mexico. Many thanks in advance for your contribution! (ps. survey participants will be edible to win a $100 gift card!)

There is a deliberate need to ensure that there is buy in from the public sector, be it at local government or national gvt level as these entities can literally put a stop to any dreams of private sector engagement. one of the ways development agencies can help private sector is by assisting them to navigate through this terrain and facilitating dialogue between the private and public sector. the private sector will appreciate technical assistance in order to gather the much needed information to inform the extent of their engagement. Before we talk about incentives for pvt sector we have ensure we have a solid technical assistance package that will add value to the business models in the private sector.

Here are some helpful sources and additional examples from our work with partners, please share Private Enterprise for Public Health attached!

And recent FSG article - Shaping Global Partnerships for a Post-2015 World, now available on Stanford Social Innovation Review's website<http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/shaping_global_partnerships_for_a_post_2015_world>.

241-PrivateEnterpriseforPublicHealth_Guide2012lowres.pdf (2.16 MB)

Responding the question How can organisations maximise the chances? I would like to add another concept is empathy, I think this ingredient is very important and the reason why lots of alliances don’t continue.

Very much recognise the issue. organisations need more than 1 change agent, to ensure full commitment and long term partnership, that goes beyond a few courageous persons. Too often, they operate in isolation, expecting to be able to answer to many critical questions. An "enabling environment" within both NGO and companies is crucial to the long term success of the partnership.

From my experience in rural development, internal systems are just as vital as collaborative culture. This is evident when the internal systems that should include collecting data, monitoring and task allocation are needed to influence "raw" culture particularly where villagers come from different environments, locations and nuances. I have seen up close a program that was so promising, fall apart because there was no fixing of responsibilities, no monitoring systems and checks. There was collaborative culture but no discipline nor framework to unify efforts. Loose cannons everywhere.

One more great example we developed summarizing business engagegemnt in global health to address health MDGs, and Every Woman Every Child. www.everywomaneverychild.org

240-SummaryofPrivateSectorPartnershipsandEveryWomanEveryChildUpdate2013low.pdf (230 KB)

Hi Jessica!
Sure -
I think there are barriers on multiple fronts:

  • suspicion at local (and still at international) level - among govt, civ society, etc - of private sector getting involved in delivery of a ‘public good’, eg concern that involving a company in discussion/dialogue gives them access to preferential treatment in service provision down the line
  • uncertainty around what the private sector can offer / add to dialogue
  • companies not pushing to get engaged for many reasons, eg because conversation is long-term and difficult, because opportunities in the market are much further out or unclear, or because companies don’t have people at local level with the skills required to engage in these types of dialogues/debates.

There are probably others, but these are the first to cross my mind!

Hi Amanda, I agree with your point that there is reluctance by the private sector to partner with government because there is mediocre track record of government's response to poverty issues etc. The other side of it is that private entities may be on the look out not to over commit as PPP partners. Again my 2 cents says that the private sector partners must define the terms of engagement according to not what is politically correct or any other superficiality. The private sector must map out its involvement based on a value chain strategy that calls for some discipline in using that value chain as an enabling resource for generating social impacts beneficial to society and to the business.

Companies that are interested in making big impact in improving people's lives in developing countries need to be connected with the right development organizations. These development organizations have close relationships with governments in those countries which private companies may not have. Bringing in expertise from both sides as well as partners in developing countries will be effective. I respect what the Inter-American Development Bank has been doing under President Moreno's leadership. They have changed development banks' roles in working with private sector.

Something which may interest you, happening on May, 6 at the London School of Economics.

Register here bit.ly/cfit14 C-FIT Partnership Forum 2014 for small charities and companies #CFIT2014.
I really hope you can join us!

My experience as part of private sector working with the government is that though gov't is powerful, it does not have the agility to act immediately on programs because of bureaucratic constraints. Gov't will however, move mountains to collaborate on development programs that have already taken off and provide respectable metrics of success. In answer to your question, the gov't needs the private sector at the very least to benchmark with. Gov'ts were never better at business than "corporates", MNCs etc. Gov'ts also need foreign investments from MNCs that are in a position to trend-set and game-change. Creating Shared Value is a vivid example of this game changing. Today our gov't is looking to our company for technical expertise in agri-business, particularly coffee production. This is unavoidable since we have made inroads in the field of coffee farming. Thank you.


Regards,

David