The changing face of development: the role of the private sector - lively panel discussion at City Hall, London
An interesting mix of panellists, bringing perspectives from business, academia and development as well as a diverse audience created a lively discussion at an event hosted by CARE International UK in London about the changing face of development: the role of the private sector on Wednesday.
The discussion, focused on three key questions:
- Why does development matter to business?
- What does it take in practice for companies to really contribute to development beyond fulfilling their CSR agendas?
- What can other sectors do to help business increase their positive impacts on development?
The underlying assumption – that the private sector plays an increasingly important and integral role in delivering economic and social progress – was not in question. Rather the session focused on the question how this notion can be turned into practical action: what type of challenges businesses face and how different sectors can support business to deliver more for development? This is what Geoffrey Dennis, CEO of CARE International UK, described as “going beyond the day of ordinary business work”. And is pretty much what we in the Facility (and many others – see for example this blog post about a recent workshop in New York) term ‘inclusive business’.
Access to finance was highlighted as a key challenge. There was consensus that access to finance is one of the key practical constraints businesses, especially SMEs, face when developing inclusive business models. Crag Hardie, Co-Founder of Malawi Mangoes Limited highlighted the challenges the social enterprise model faces and raised the idea of a “one-stop-shop” for inclusive business finance, helping businesses to understand which different types of funding are available to companies, was raised. The Business Innovation Facility will have to explore how much we can meet this need, in our pilot countries or on the Practitioner Hub.
The importance of collaboration and partnership across and within sectors was also highlighted. Different sectors have different skills and expertise, and development impact will be greater if they work together. This might not be very new to many of you and the discussion did not question the potential and importance of cross-sector partnerships.
However, regarding the question how successful business interventions can be scaled up and replicated to achieve greater development impact some interesting points were made about the importance of collaboration within sectors. For example, Frances House, Director of Strategy at the Institute for Human Rights and Business and CARE International UK Trustee, gave the example of the Barclays, CARE and Plan initiative “Banking on Change” that supports financial inclusion through the development of savings-led community finance. According to her, successful companies such as Barclays should act as advocates and leading examples for other businesses in the sector, to increase knowledge and support further development of similar inclusive business models by other companies.
Partnership will also be a central topic at the upcoming event in the 2010 Event Series about Harnessing the Power of Business for Development Impact: Unlocking Africa’s Trading Potential through Partnership.