International Trade Forum

Private equity and the United Nations (UN) have some important common objectives that relate to the creation of a more sustainable and stable global economy. The good news for private equity is that these platforms now exist, and offer a range of immediate and longer-term benefits. There has been a radical change within some parts of the UN that has brought the UN closer to the worlds of business and finance. As a result of the long decades of the Cold War, indifference and mutual suspicion c...

Why Sustainability Is Now the Key Driver of Innovation

Talk long enough to CEOs, particularly in the US or Europe, and their concerns will pour out: making their operations sustainable and developing "green" products places them at a disadvantage vis-a-vis rivals in developing countries that don't face the same pressures. Executives behave as though they have to choose between the largely social benefits of developing sustainable products or processes and the financial costs of doing so. The key to progress, particularly in times of economic cris...

Patient Capital: A Third Way to Think About Aid

With enterprises ranging from drip-irrigation companies in India and Pakistan to a major manufacturer of malaria-preventing bed nets in Tanzania and women's hospitals and ambulance services in India, Acumen's US$ 40 million portfolio has created more than 22,000 jobs and had a positive impact on more than 30 million people in developing countries. At a time when the debate over foreign aid often pits those who mistrust charity against those who are wary of relying on the markets, Acumen Fund ...

Cadbury Goes Fairtrade

On a cocoa farm in Ghana, two chief executives sit on a log talking about their respective business goals. One is the CEO of Cadbury, Todd Stitzer; the other is the UK Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, Harriet Lamb. They are reflecting on the stories of farmers like Benjamin Atiemo in Adjeikrom village, whose children have left the village to seek work in the capital, Accra. Farmer empowerment is now seen as a crucial part of the approach Cadbury wants to take. And that's where Fairtrade ...

The Need for Good Information

It might seem obvious that a multinational commercial organization wanting to make a contribution to social development can best do so by using its core competencies. But in professional services organizations like KPMG, they have to be a little more creative in working out how best to use their skills. Since 2007 KPMG has been working with the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI), an urban counterpart to the Millennium Villages Project. MCI seeks to help selected mid-sized cities across sub-Sa...

Nestlé's Public-Private Partnerships in Agrioultural Sourcing

Operating through more than 20 formal, and many less formal public-private partnerships (PPP), Nestle works with agricultural producers and governmental and non-governmental agencies to deliver innovative solutions to water management and sustainable farming practices in developing countries. Nestle set up the Shuangcheng milk production facility in Heilongjiang Province, north-east China, in 1987. It is the largest facility of its kind in Asia and ranks fourth in the world in terms of annual...

Ugandan Coffee Growers

In Uganda, the Good African Coffee company, in conjunction with ITC, is demonstrating how public-private partnership can make a significant impact on low-income rural communities. About 85% of Ugandans are farmers, but only a small percentage of Uganda's gross domestic product comes from agriculture due to lack of access to markets, poor export strategies and crude farming techniques. In 2007 the Ugandan public and private sectors launched their National Export Strategy and identified organic...

The Evolving Links Between Business and International Development Agencies in Ppps

The private sector has never played a greater or more influential role in international economic development than it does today. As international development strategies continue to rapidly evolve, the challenge for both public and private sector leaders is in how to adapt their thinking. Just as the role of the private sector has increased in emerging market development, so other aspects of the development equation have changed. There is an increasing focus on bottom of the pyramid economics,...

New Developments in Philanthropy: How Private Foundations Are Changing International Development

In recent decades a broad range of non-state actors ranging from multinational firms to non-governmental organizations have become key players in development finance alongside more traditional players such as official aid agencies and multilateral institutions. More recently they have been joined by a host of interested parties including social entrepreneurs, former politicians and celebrities, who have used their profile to raise awareness and leverage resources for international aid in deve...

Philanthropic Foundations for the Future: Different Approaches to Global Issues

The trend towards private philanthropic foundations has seen some of the worlds most powerful past and present leaders lending business and political clout to public-private partnerships for international development. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the worlds largest private philanthropic foundation. Since its inception in 2000, the foundation has pledged in excess of US$21 billion in grants to projects across the US and in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1998 by the Executive...

The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis On Public-Private Partnerships

The global financial crisis has transformed the outlook for infrastructure projects with private participation in developing countries. In the second half of 2009 developing economies are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel, with the crisis easing and investment flows returning. But as was the case with the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it is clear that the downturn of 2008-2009 will leave a lasting impact on the outlook for private participation in infrastructure long after the crisis ...

Beyond Investment: Engaging the Private Sector in Trade Facilitation

Trade facilitation has the potential to bring considerable economic gains to developing and least developed countries through improving their trade competitiveness and diversifying their export bases. The benefits of removing impediments to trade are substantial, with evidence suggesting that the gains from these reforms can be higher than reducing tariffs. WorldBank and UNESCAP data demonstrate that the Asia-Pacific region has made tremendous progress in reducing at- and behind-the-border ti...

The Private Sector: Important Partners in Aid for Trade

Aid for Trade can provide a significant stimulus to economic growth in developing countries but decisions on where to apply it should include the views of the private sector -- for indeed it is the private sector that trades and it understands the areas of greater constraint. Public-private partnerships and corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, which provide linkages between small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and large corporations, can also contribute to economic growth and A...

Tourism Services Liberalization in the Caribbean-European Epa Negotiations

In Barbados, collaboration between the public and private sectors successfully secured better tourism trade conditions than that afforded by the World Trade Organization's General Agreement on Trade in Services. The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the CARIFORUM Group of African Caribbean Pacific countries and the European Union (EU) represented enhanced and new market access opportunities for CARIFORUM investors and service providers in the tourism industry in the EU market. The ...

Public-Private Partnerships for Integrated Customs Services in Ghana

Over the last ten years, the Government of Ghana has shown a firm strategic commitment to attracting export-oriented investments, facilitating trade and enhancing Ghanaian competitiveness. Reforming the processes and procedures used by the nation's Customs, Excise and Preventative Service was a major contributor in working towards these goals. In recognizing the important role played by the private sector in driving economic growth for Ghana, the Government looked to a PPP to help build, own ...

Viet Nam's Fisheries Exports to the Ec

The fisheries and aquaculture sectors are significant contributors to the economy of Viet Nam. However, between 1976 and 1992, the Vietnamese fisheries sector experienced rapidly declining outputs due to adverse conditions such as low skills in aquatic management and exploitation, irregular and low-quality supply of materials to the processing industry, worn down production facilities and limited knowledge of modern marketing principles. Countering these constraints and deficiencies was cruci...

What Makes a Good Deal? The Changing Role of Csr in Corporate Culture

In an interview, Ian Jarman, CEO, Spring Worldwide Limited, talked about the key factors in a successful public-private partnerships (PPP) and the emerging tends in corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to Jarman, there are several key factors in a successful PPP, but the main priorities are having a clear understanding of your own objectives and those of the other parties, and a mutually acceptable agreement on the desired outcome of the project. The notion of CSR is rapidly chang...

Public-Private Partnerships and the Creative Sector

In recent years, the idea that development is solely a matter for governments has been replaced by a clear recognition of the role of both the private sector and civil society. The UN Global Compact has played a pioneering role in encouraging PPPs. UNESCO's 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions enshrines the principle of PPPs in the cultural sector. In addition, through its Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity launched in 2001, UNESCO has e...

The Role of the Private Sector in Export Strategy Development

In recent years, there has been much greater awareness of the need to engage the private sector directly in policy dialogue, particularly to trade negotiations related to enhanced market access. Since its inception, ITC's work in national sectoral and regional export strategy design and management has been based on the premise that export development and competitiveness are a function of a sound and enduring relationship between the public and private sectors. ITC advocates the formalization ...

World Trade Promotion Organization Conference and Awards 2010

Boosting Competitiveness: Itc's New Business Guides

Designed to help businesses boast trade competitiveness -- and to inspire entrepreneurship -- these nine practical guides are targeted at small firms in developing countries and trade support institutions that work with them. These books are: Guide to Geographical Indications: Linking Products and their Origins; Service Pioneers: Stories of Innovative Entrepreneurs; Islamic Banking -- A Guide for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises; EC-CARIFORUM Economic Partnership Agreement: Services and Inv...