APEI Technical Meeting

26&27 September 2013 Lilongwe, Malawi

Public-private dialogue and learning for

economic transformation

Dr Paul Engel Director

We focus on the relations and cooperation between Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific and Europe

We think ‘development’ is not just a problem in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific

We link policy and practice for development – What works? What doesn’t? How? Why?

We help improve the quality and impact of policy reform processes

We help accelerate structured dialogue processes between policy makers and relevant stakeholders

We study, assess and share the (intended and unintended) effects of policies in practice

We work together with national (knowledge) institutes in what we do

ECDPM – Independent European Centre

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•  Governments engage more with the private sector as engine of growth; recognize the need to improve the business environment in their countries

•  Development finance institutions & banks: long tradition of engaging the private sector; but so far limited attention to improving the environment businesses operate in

•  Engagement of donors with private sector is more recent for many; mixed feelings by donors (and business)

•  New context…

Private sector and development

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“We want economic reform…” = economic transformation

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AIDA

“We want to engage the private sector…”

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•  The private sector is going there anyway…

A billion good reasons: private financial flows…!

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…but largely to extractive… and great risk of jobless growth

No such thing as THE “private sector” => need for tailored approach to diverse clusters

Engaging the ‘private sector for development’ •  Contribution to which development objectives? •  CSR or core business? •  Opening new markets/changing business models •  Profit or non-profit? Large or SMEs? Domestic or foreign? •  Employment, sustainability?

Not without policy and practical reform and ‘private sector development’ as well: •  Improving the business environment & •  Building private sector capacity

Different types of engagement

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•  Private sector development i.e. Trade agenda: domestic enterprises, value-addition, exports, firm-level skills, …

•  Private sector investment for development New agenda: international, partnering with (international) firms, offset risk, link producers & suppliers, value chains, CSR to Shared value

•  Private sector finance for development Leverage private finance for development

•  Public-private dialogue and economic reform Business environment: identifying business drivers and bottlenecks; define opportunities for policy and/or practical improvement; i.e. in government regulations; credit-access, industrial policy, etc.

Tailored approaches and roles:

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•  Diversity of countries •  Diversity of level of development •  Diversity of economic structures •  Diversity of business framework & organization

•  Common integration objectives •  Converging interests •  Converging agenda •  Sharing experiences

=> APEI public – private dialogue; diversity is a strength

No such thing as regional uniformity either - APEI

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APEI - Human Development Index

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2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2000

HDI

VAlue

Malawi

Mauritius

Mozambique

Seychelles

Zambia

Human  Development  Index  (HDI)  value  2012   2011   2010   2009   2008   2007   2006   2005   2000  

Malawi   0.418   0.415   0.413   0.401   0.392   0.381   0.373   0.363   0.352  Mauri4us   0.737   0.735   0.732   0.727   0.725   0.72   0.715   0.708   0.676  Mozambique   0.327   0.322   0.318   0.312   0.306   0.301   0.291   0.287   0.247  Seychelles   0.806   0.804   0.799   0.795   0.793   0.792   0.785   0.781   0.774  Zambia   0.448   0.443   0.438   0.431   0.42   0.411   0.405   0.399   0.376  

•  Choose focus: Define policy and/or practical areas where business interests & development objectives converge (i.e. food security, credit, customs)

•  Set objective: Create ever more business-friendly regulatory environment … to promote business-driven economic transformation…for sustainable & inclusive development – define indicators for progress

•  Connect to and/or build (knowledge) networks: to provide timely inputs; business options, and to document lessons and experiences; communicate results.

•  Understand prerequisites for success: Requires political will and a continuous active public-private sector engagement…(i.e. monetary and time costs!) …and often, accompanying measures

⇒  Sustained public – private dialogue ⇒  The process is as important as its content

Structured Public-Private Dialogue:

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APEI –Doing Business Comparison Economy   Ease  of  Doing  Business  Rank   Filtered  Rank   StarHng  a  Business   ProtecHng  Investors   Trading  Across  Borders   Enforcing  Contracts  

Mauri4us   19   1   2   2   1   8  

Seychelles   74   6   16   9   2   14  

Zambia   94   8   7   13   30   15  

Mozambique   146   20   10   5   16   22  

Malawi   157   26   26   13   39   27  

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Ease of Doing Business Rank

Filtered Rank

Starting a Business

Protecting Investors

Trading Across Borders

Enforcing Contracts

Rank

WB Doing Business Indicators

Malawi

Mozambique

Zambia

Seychelles

Mauritius

“The objective is to create mutual engagement on the part of governments and businesses to undertake policy reforms with a view to improving the overall business environment so as to strengthen the competitiveness of enterprises, encourage linkages and facilitate exchanges among APEI countries.” (ToR)

APEI Objective: public private engagement for economic reform

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How? Facilitating APEI Government – private sector engagement and progress •  Define common challenges •  Focus on solving business bottlenecks; set goals and

monitor progress. •  Build on existing national government and domestic

business experiences and, knowledge networks for documenting, sharing and learning.

•  Connect with APEI national and regional formal policy making processes.

•  Key principles: stakeholder drive and ownership of the process; adequate knowledge and information support; effective and efficient (virtual and face-to-face) meetings; clear outputs and outcomes in line with goals set.

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•  Independent, non-partisan foundation

•  Strong orientation on process and ownership

•  Intense connection to African policy and practice

•  Experienced facilitators of structured dialogue and multi-stakeholders sharing and learning

•  Proven capacity to collect, synthesize and share key information in brief handy formats

•  Building on relevant experiences elsewhere –

successes & failures

•  Close attention to the political economy of economic transformation

•  Experience in reporting back to governments and business partners

ECDPM assets & possible roles

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•  Is the government committed to ‘going the extra mile’ to improve the business environment in the country?

•  Which sector/cluster of the economy has priority? •  In this sector/cluster are business interests and

and development objectives converging? •  For each country, who should take part in the

structured dialogue in this cluster/sector? •  Will these stakeholders, in particular the private

sector, be interested in participating? •  How is this different from what is being done now? •  What can be done to make sure specific, visible

results are being achieved?

Some questions for discussion:

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Thank you www.ecdpm.org

Prof Dr Ir Paul Engel pe@ecdpm.org

Director

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