A whole new range of actors is placing private sector development centre of their attention and operations. While a wider set of players can provide significant strength and dynamic to any activity, it also brings confusion and incoherence. A useful first step would be to get a better common understanding of the actual impacts of private development activities, to define different measurement tools, and to reflect on their implications for policy. ECDPM with TraidCraft, DCED and BUSINESSEUROPE organised an informal multi-stakeholder meeting in Brussels in last December to highlight and share the different views of ...
“Jobs” are the focus of the recently launched World Development Report 2013. This year’s edition of the World Bank’s annual flagship publication raises a host of interesting issues. Key points and take away messages I got from the London launch event earlier this month are: 1) Although labour market functioning is important, labour market policies in developing countries matter much less for employment than other policies because of implementation difficulties and the fact that most employment is informal. 2) Relatedly, although most people in developing countries are informally self-employed on farms and in micro-enterprises, it ...
Preparations for this year’s European Development Days on the 16th and 17th October are now well underway. Among 4 panels in which ECDPM will participate, we are co-organizing a panel to look at “How can we maximise inclusive growth and development: The Pros and Cons of Private Sector Engagement and Blending Instruments”. The idea for the panel builds on the growing interest and demand among donors, developing country governments and the private sector itself for engaging business for development ends, something we have discussed here before and in a recent discussion paper. Although there are ...
“Getting more bang for the development Euro” is not usually how we talk about “enhancing aid effectiveness”, but this was the title of a session from a recent Friends of Europe roundtable. While involving the private sector more closely in development might therefore bring new jargon as well as additional finance, the discussion highlighted two other important issues: the high expectations that donors and the private sector have from one another, as well as the need for donors to manage potential failure and to improve their adaptability… Temper expectations Private sector representatives at the roundtable ...
Promoting private sector development in poor countries and engaging with firms for achieving development ends is very much in fashion. In development circles, round tables and events discussing public-private partnerships are springing up more and more. Recently, a participant at one of these asked, “How much of this is actually new?” But further, what would have to happen to make any new engagement with the private sector more widely acceptable and effective? The private sector has always had a key role in development through providing jobs and incomes. It has also “engaged” with governments through ...
That the private sector is important, if not key, to economic development is nothing new. However, with the increasing rhetoric on the need to “enhance the role of the private sector in development”, events around this topic are mushrooming. BusinessEurope organized a seminar in Brussels on March 15th, with the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, as well as business federation and private sector company representatives present. While we have commented before on the need to distinguish “which” private sector we are talking about, here we were very much discussing how the EU private sector ...
“Policies for Promoting The Private Sector’s Role in Development” was the subject for debate at a high-level roundtable event organised by the Development Policy Forum of Friends of Europe on November 8 in Brussels. ECDPM attended, given our interest and work in economic governance, and in particular in issues relating to business facilitation, taxation, trade facilitation and the Economic Partnership Agreements. The discussions raised some interesting issues and thoughts regarding the role of the private sector in development, but also highlighted the need for more clarity - and perhaps different terminology - when looking at ...
