Private Sector Cooperation
To achieve its objectives, development cooperation needs private-sector involvement. Public effort alone is not enough to realise the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015. From environmental protection to education and health, from agriculture and food security to water and energy supply, many central activity areas of development policy converge with private sector business operations. This is why private and public partners alike benefit from co-designing economic, political, legal and social frameworks in developing and emerging countries.
Development partnerships that the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) initiates with the private sector, also known as ‘Public Private Partnerships’ (PPP), support the partners’ interest and harness their individual strengths. PPP-projects combine the respective strengths of public and private partners. They are planned, financed and implemented jointly. Private companies make use of contacts, experience and global networks of development cooperation to safeguard their local investments, participate in developing and emerging markets and set up structures providing long-term viability. Development cooperation benefits from private sector involvement in partner countries, which helps to achieve development-policy objectives on a sustainable and cost-effective basis. This durably improves people’s living conditions in developing and emerging countries and at the same time enhances the economic, ecological and social framework for economic activity.
The GIZ DPP Modules
GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) offers different modules of DPP for development partnerships with the private sector:
1. DPP Ideas competitions for German and European Companies: Creating transparency
Transparent competitions give all companies equal opportunities for participation. In terms of contents, the competitions unite two complementary aspects. On the one hand, they address important development-policy problems by focusing on sector-specific themes. On the other, innovation competitions make it possible to pick up fresh ideas from the business sector and to put them into practice within PPP. The themes change every year and are selected in coordination with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Agribusiness, and Biodiversity, Water, and Innovative approaches are the themes for the GIZ 2010 developpp ideas competitions. http://www.developpp.de/en/ideas_competitions.html
2. Strategic alliances: One step further
Strategic alliances are formed with German and European companies to initiate projects with a particular broad spectrum of impacts. Generally, their scope is transnational, their focus is relevant to an entire sector and they bring together global players from trade and industry, governments and NGO’s and other national and international organisations. http://www.developpp.de/en/Strategic_PPP_alliances.html
3. DPP with GIZ in Bilateral Development Programmes
Besides the develoPPP.de programme that directs funds to ideas competition and strategic alliance, DPP are possible within programmes of the bilateral, international cooperation carried out by GIZ. These projects are not financed from specialized funds for develoPPP.de, but from resources made available by the Federal Republic to partner countries as part of its bilateral cooperation. Here, options are numerous an d diverse, but depend on the specific agreements between Germany and the partner country in question. For interested companies it is worthwhile to check opportunities in individual countries For further information about GIZ programmes, please visit www.giz.de
4. DPP Africa Facility: Sustainable development through cooperation with Africa-based companies
The Public Private Partnership Africa Facility is a financing instrument for the promotion of development partnerships with Africa-based companies. GIZ engages in DPP with local companies, their associations, national authorities and other social institutions within the focal areas of bilateral Technical Cooperation. Thus, it involves the private sector in the development process.
GIZ’s Development Partnerships in South Africa
Ever since the DPP programme has kicked-off, GIZ has formed about 30 partnerships with private firms and associations in South Africa. The following serve as an example:
1. SAP- erp4school partnership project
Economic growth and development in Africa can be greatly accellerated with the application of information and communications technologies (ICT), however, this require the commensurate skills set. The erp4school partnership project between SAP AG, GIZ and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) has been designed to address this skills deficit from the angle of enterprise resource planning skills for high school and higher education students. In the long run, this will improve participating students’ employability and contribute to an ICT skills pool for private and public sector organisations.
2. Festo Didactic GmbH & Co. KG- ProESE-Practice-oriented Education in SanitaryEngineering
Over the next seven years, the South African Government will make substantial investment into water infrastructure thereby securing South Africa water supply. GIZ, have partnered with Festo Didatic GmbH & co KG, and together with the University of Pretoria and the Water Academy will develop training measures for a municipal and industrial water supply and sanitation. This will contribute to municipalities and industries capacity to operate water supply and sanitation plants more efficiently.
3. MTN - E-waste partnership project
The growing consumption of electronic goods is resulting in more and more electronic waste being generated. Very often, electronic waste is mismanaged via dumping or is being dismantled and discarded in unsafe and unregulated ways. While some international standards for management of electronic waste exist and many countries have their own regulations to address this issue, there is still a need for a model for e-waste management that can address the public and private sector organisations’ concerns over the associated health, safety, legal and environmental compliance issues. GIZ, MTN SA (a South African mobile communications company) and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT)’s Technology Station Electronics (TSE) are collaborating to investigating ways in which South African small and medium sized electronic waste handling companies can be supported through skills and enterprise development initiatives to receive, recycle and discard of electronic waste in a manner that is compliant, auditable and sustainable. This partnership project will contribute to skills development in the electronic waste sector, enterprise development of small and medium sized businesses, which should result in decent and sustainable jobs and livelihoods and lastly, also contributes to environmental sustainability.
Contact
For further information on GIZ DPP including the different DPP modules and the specific DPP criteria, please refer to http://www.gtz.de/en/leistungsangebote/2362.htm or contact Gavin Watson at gavin.watson@giz.de
Supporting Responsible Business Behaviour and Corporate Social Responsibility
The Center for Cooperation with the Private Sector (CCPS) is based in Pretoria and works throughout the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. GIZ realises this sector project on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The responsible behaviour of companies, that is to say behaviour that considers the economical, ecological and social dimension of business, is often referred to as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Essentially, it involves doing business in an ecologically and socially responsible manner along the whole value chain.
To foster such responsible business behaviour in sub-Saharan Africa, CCPS:
supports private-sector initiatives on CSR or CSR topics in targeted countries and regions across boundaries;
assists local non-governmental and academic CSR competence centres; and
both enhances the understanding of CSR in Africa and refines concepts adapted to the specific context of the continent.
CCPS assists with setting up platforms for the private and public sectors, civil society and academia to enhance engagement, interaction and mutual learning on CSR. The Center helps businesses to identify crucial areas for responsible business engagement and the corresponding needs for support. CCPS also interlinks companies, other stakeholders and CSR initiatives, and systematically identifies and shares relevant information and knowledge. Relevant issues are identified jointly with the respective partner(s). Current themes include collective action against corruption; local supply-chain development; responsible business investment in post-conflict zones; food security; human rights; energy efficiency; and water sustainability.
Contact:
For further information on CCPS please contact: Doris Popp, CCPS, Tel.: +27 (0) 12 423 6339, Cell: +27 (0) 82 903 1313 Fax: +27 (0) 12 423 6383, E-mail: doris.popp@giz.de, Homepage: http://www.ccps-africa.org.