Investing in the “business” of

development – Bilateral donor

approaches to engaging the

private sector

Presentation for the Africa-Canada Forum – Colloquium 2012

Economic Growth, the Private Sector and Sustainable Development:

Where is Africa Heading

October 30-31, 2012

Based on a working paper written by Shannon Kindornay, The North-

South Institute and Fraser Reilly-King, Canadian Council for

International Co-operation (forthcoming)

Presentation Outline

• Introduction

• Methodology

• Overview of donor strategies

• Modalities for engaging with the private

sector

• Implementation considerations

• Conclusions

Introduction

• Increasing focus on the private sector

by OECD-DAC donors

– International Commitments

• Declining aid budgets

• Lack of comparative analysis

– Initial mapping and exploratory

assessment

Methodology

• Objectives:

– Survey key components of bilateral donor

strategies on the private sector;

– Examine commonalities and differences;

– Assess how donors incorporate good

development practices into strategies; and

– Find examples of good practice.

Methodology

• Literature review January-June 2012

• Initial scoping

• Policies included

– Beyond private sector and economic

growth strategies

Methodology

• Establishing the framework for

comparison

• Refinement

• Limitations

Table 1 – Themes and sub-themes

Themes Sub-Themes

Structure of the growth or private sector strategy

Accordance with other agreements

Actors and targets

Implementation considerations

Cross-cutting concerns

Agency specific

Other

- Budget size dedicated to the strategy

- Market Vision and Assumptions behind the Growth or Private Sector Strategy

- The rationale of the strategy: How the growth or private sector strategy brings about poverty reduction

- Pillars of the PS or Growth strategy

- Relevance to the G-20 growth strategy* - Relevance to the Paris Declaration, the Accra

Agenda for Action and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (BPd)

- Signatory to the Joint Declaration on expanding public-private cooperation for broad-based, inclusive and sustainable growth and Member of the Private Sector Building Block

- Role of the State - Role of other development actors in the strategy

(in particular Social Partners)

- Domestic or international private sector - Areas of focus and key targets - Financial and Development additionality

- International Standards and Principles

- Explicit strategies for leveraging aid ressources - Transparency and accountability - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) - Monitoring and evaluation

- Sustainability definition - Gender dimension - Human Rights - Empowerment

- Organizational structure* - Attitudes - Other remarks

Overview of donor

strategies

• Policy Frameworks

– Broad strategies

– Partnering with the private sector and

promoting private sector development

– Clear strategy for engaging the private

sector?

Overview of donor

strategies

• Supporting the private sector: how

much and where?

– Publicly available information lacking

– Different ways of defining private sector

and/or growth programming

Table 2 – Donor reporting on growth and the private sector through the OECD’s Creditor

Reporting System

Canada Norway* Spain

Sub-sectors

Education (11330, 11430)

Water supply and sanitation

(14010, 14015, 14040, 14050)

Government and Civil Society

(15110, 15111, 15112, 15113)

Infrastructure and services

- Social infrastructure and

services (16020, 16062)

- Transport and storage (21010,

21020, 21030, 21040, 21050,

21061, 21081)

- Communications (22010,

22020, 22040)

- Energy generation and supply

(23010, 23020, 23030, 23040,

23050, 23061, 23062, 23063,

23064, 23065, 23066, 23067,

23068, 23069, 23070, 23081,

23082)

- Banking and financial services

(24010, 24020, 24030, 24040,

24081; 25010, 25020)

- Forestry and fishing (31210,

31220, 31261, 31281, 31282,

31291; 31310, 31320, 31381,

31382, 31391)

Industry (32110, 32120, 32130,

32140, 32161, 32162, 32163,

32164, 32165, 32166, 32167,

32168, 32169, 32170, 32171,

32172, 32182; 32210, 32220,

32261, 32262, 32263, 32264,

32265, 32266, 32267, 32268;

Sub-sectors

-Transport and storage (21010,

21020, 21030, 21040, 21050,

21061)

Communications (22010, 22020,

22040)

- Banking and financial services

(24010, 24030. 24040, 24081;

25010)

Agriculture and fishing (31110,

31120, 31161, 31181, 31182,

31191; 31310, 31320, 31381,

31382, 31391)

Industry (32110, 32120, 32130,

32140, 32163, 32164, 32165,

32166, 32167, 32168, 32169,

32170, 32171, 32172, 32182;

32210, 32220, 32261, 32262,

32263, 32265, 32268; 32310)

Sub-sectors

Government and Civil Society

(15110, 15111, 15120, 15130,

15150)

Infrastructure and services

- Social infrastructure and

services (16010, 16020)

- Transport and storage (21010,

21020, 21030, 21040, 21050,

21061)

- Communications (22010,

22020, 22040

- Energy generation and supply

23010

- Banking and financial services

(24010, 24030. 24040, 24081;

25010)

Industry (32110, 32120, 32130,

32140, 32163, 32164, 32165,

32166, 32167, 32168, 32169,

32170, 32171, 32172, 32182;

32210, 32310)

Overview of donor

strategies

• Logic and assumptions

– Private sector as the engine of growth and

development

– Partnering with versus supporting or

promoting the private sector

– Promoting donors’ commercial interests

– Private sector as means to increase

incomes and public revenues

Overview of donor

strategies

• Growth patterns matter

– Inequality, distributional impacts

• US, EU, Ireland, France, Belgium

– Pro-poor growth

• Switzerland, South Korea, Germany

– Green growth / ecological considerations

• South Korea, Germany, Japan, US

Overview of donor

strategies

• Aid exit and the self-reliant state

– Self-sufficiency and empowerment

– Yet, what role for the state?

• Enabling environment for business

• Industrial policy versus marking markets work

• Policy space?

• Provision of social services

• Very little focus on domestic resource

mobilization and taxation

Overview of donor

strategies

• Regardless of logic and assumptions

donors take, programing and partnership

entry points are often similar

Modalities for engaging

with the private sector

Levels of Engagement

• Macro – business enabling environment

• Meso – making markets work

• Micro – investing in businesses and people

i Meant to harness private sector expertise and innovation to develop solutions to development

challenges. Examples include Australia’s Enterprise Challenge Fund

(http://www.enterprisechallengefund.org/) and the UK’s Construction Ideas Fund

(http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Work-with-us/Funding-opportunities/Business/Construction-Ideas-Fund/) . ii Donors seek to match their domestic business with business in developing countries. Extent to which

these include explicit development additionality criteria varies. Danida Business Partnerships are one

example (http://um.dk/en/danida-en/activities/business/partnerships/).

Table 3: Examples of donor modalities for engaging the private sector at various intervention levels

Macro: Business Enabling Environment

- engagement with private sector as dialogue partner on national development planning (ex. Germany, Sweden, UK)

Meso: Making Markets Work

- competition or challenge fundsi to develop products and services that benefit

the poor (ex. Australia, Austria, Germany, UK, Canada)

- advance market commitments (ex. Canada, France, Italy, UK) - matching initiatives

ii that couple firms in donor countries with businesses in

developing countries (and sometime CSOs), often with a significant focus on development impact (ex. Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, The Netherlands, Sweden, UK, US)

- support for micro, small and medium size enterprises, including farmers, with a view to integrating them into global value chains (ex. Austria, Canada, Italy, New Zealand)

- financing for firms in donor countries to invest in developing countries (ex. Denmark, Germany, Finland)

Micro: Investing in Businesses and People

- technical assistance to private sector enterprises in developing countries (New Zealand, Denmark, UK)

- support for feasibility studies for pro-poor product or service development (ex. Austria, Germany)

Other - support for national and international corporate social responsibility standards like the Global Compact or the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (ex. Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Canada)

- support for multilaterals that work with or on the private sector (ex. Austria, UK)

- Research on best practices for engaging the private sector (ex. UK) - Private contractors (ex. Australia, Sweden) - Public-Private Partnerships, including with CSOs (ex. Australia, Denmark,

Germany, Sweden, UK and Canada)

Implementation

Considerations

• Which private sector?

• Financial and development additionality

• Cross-cutting policies

• International norms and standards

• Aid effectiveness principles

Conclusions

• Limitations of the study

• Engagement on critical issues lacking

• Implications of provisional analysis

– Potential for inconsistency across donors

programming

– Risk of diverting aid funding from

development to the promotion of

commercial interests

– Quick fixes

– Better incorporation of good development

practice in strategies needed

Thank you!

The North-South Institute

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The North-South Institute thanks the Canadian

International

Development Agency for its core grant and the

International

Development Research Centre for its program and

institutional

support grant to NSI.