Comments

Roderick Duncan’s recent article – “Governance Reform in the Public Sector in Pacific Island Countries - Understanding How Culture Matters” is an important reference for all interested in this complex and difficult area. I agree with Duncan that there is little evidence of much improvement in governance in the Pacific island countries (PICs) despite the decade-long efforts of domestic civic groups, international groups such as Transparency International, and aid agencies. While governance is clearly a priority, and a growing focus, for development agencies within the Pacific (and other regions), perhaps the approach of international aid agencies has lacked consistency, perseverance and a failure to learn from the past. Perhaps we need to change our approach and ensure that future reform efforts assure that there is domestic support and account for local culture! If the development agencies change their approach, perhaps we should expect to see political, sociological, and anthropological assessments underpinning reform efforts. E. John Blunt is a Procurement and Institutional Expert with extensive experience in leading public procurement reforms in a variety of international development environments. He is currently working with the Southern African Development Community Secretariat in Botswana.

Thanks Joel for this interesting piece. As someone who has run two of Australia's largest post-graduate programs in International Development , I would make the point that whilst providing postgraduate qualifications for those that do work or would like to work for AusAID is important, AusAID is but one of a very large number of possible employers within the sector. Universities must therefore develop (excuse the pun) qualifications that cater for those wishing to work for AusAID, small NGOs, large NGOs, overseas based agencies, multi-lateral agencies, local councils, indigenous communities, etc. There is a variety of skills and technical proficiencies required across this wide gamut of organisations. So what is ideal for one organisations might not fit the bill for another. It is perhaps why ACFID have around 50 undergraduate and post-graduate courses (not including the embedded Grad Certs and Grad Dips) offered by various Australian universities listed on their website - http://www.acfid.asn.au/get-involved/university-courses Prospective students should speak to those organisations that they wish to one-day work to get a sense of which degree provides the basis for what must be life-long learning in this sector. The degree will only ever be the start - not the end - of learning what is effective development.

I agree with Tess that it is "difficult to get ‘big business’ to be able to operate at the (small) level that can really make a difference" and "engaging with the private sector needs to be a much more localised ‘home grown’ activity." At Jacana (jacana.org) we are trying to build an SME investment industry in Africa, SMEs being the backbone of all economies and SME funding being the biggest obstacle to their develoment. Key partners in this are the publicly funded Develpment Finance Institutions such as the UK's CDC or Netherlands' FMO. But we also need philanthropic (including Programme Related Investment from major foundations) or grant funding to seed this activity in frontier markets such as Mali or Ethiopia where this sort of venture capital and the associated infrastructure barely exist. So this is a partnerhsip between public, private and philanthropic sectors. Investment in SMEs needs this mixture to become established because the cost of executing small investments, and providing the hands-on suport that small businesses need, is too high and risky for purely commercial investors. But the goal is to bring in these investors once a track record is established. The potential from pension funds, insurance companies etc dwarfs the amounts available from aid and philanthropic sources. That in our view is the long-term way of tackling the root causes of poverty.

Marianne, A few thoughts re big business and aid: It is hard to see much opportunity for any real progress within the currently prevailing paradigms of business and government. However, we seem to be on the threshold of collapse for a number of these ideas and there are some interesting new approaches that may find an opportunity to be tried as the failure of the old ones becomes increasingly apparent. A new book by Richard Branson sounds interesting in this regard. See: How can we go from THRIVE to thriving? December 6th, 2011, http://theconversation.org/ Also, Charles Eisenstein, the New World Order, and THRIVE , December 2nd, 2011 on the same site A thought provoking book on declining birth rates and the coming demographic crash is also very relevant to the aid situation - How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too) by Goldman, David (The collapse in birth rates across much of the Muslim world was a real surprise to me.) Another very informative book is Treasure Islands: Uncovering the Damage of Offshore Banking and Tax Havens by Shaxson, Nicholas These books are available via Amazon and both have Kindle editions as well. Regards, Walter Starck

Dear Andrew, Interesting arguements. I do qualitative and quantitative research around PNG on sexual health and related. As WHO indicated about CHW, most Church Health Service run facilities in PNG are manned by community health worker serving in very remote parts of PNG. They are doing a great job than government health workers I must honestly say. It is not a complete waste of time. It is needed as general nursing colleges in PNG have limited spacing. Especially for Church Health Services there is good evidence on community health worker's contributions to maternal child health and HIV. I do have reservations for village health volunteers. Volunteerisms is not well understood by Papua New Guineans. There is again enough evidence of failing programs and the issue of sustainability in engaging volunteers in PNG. Taking into account the detoriating health system in PNG, it will be overwhelming for health departments at all levels to monitor and coordinate VHV. One way to go about change to meet those millenium goals is to build the capacity of existing health services in PNG. At least this has been working for Church Health Services in terms of staff capacity building, staff motivation, clinical upgrade, strong health management,adequate and timely resource management, quality assurance, M&E etc. There are other incentives that have been working well for maternal and child health programs in some parts of PNG. Eg. funding waiting houses for pre natal and post natal women near remote clinics to improve access. Continue supporting weekly and monthly MCH clinics (foot patrols) and annual foot patrol immunisation campaigns. MCH being intergrated to other health services like HIV, Sexual Health and family health etc to increase education and access. I'm happy to discuss the models practiced at three highlands provinces of PNG under Catholic Health Services in comparision to government run clinics if you are interested. Kind regards, Marie Mondu Caritas Australia STI Management Program--PNG

Thanks Marianne, this is a really interesting discussion on partnerships between public and private sector. I work for Coffey International Development as Manager for AusAID’s Enterprise Challenge Fund (ECF), which has some interesting lessons for PPP in development. The engagement of private sector in development should be encouraged to go beyond Corporate Social Responsibility - the Business for Millennium Development (B4MD) team calls this expanded role ‘creating value’. Market development programs such as ECF are working in partnership with the private sector to create opportunities for the poor in employment, as suppliers and accessing goods and services as customers. This leads to communities engaging with companies in a meaningful way benefiting both the company and society with a higher likelihood of sustainability, poverty reduction and economic growth. For example – last week I travelled to the Philippines to visit the Cagayan de Oro Handmade Paper Company - a handmade paper factory that uses a naturally occurring fibre called abaca. In 2007 the company was growing rapidly and wanted to develop a secure supply of abaca available locally so applied for an ECF grant to support the set-up costs for abaca plantations with the indigenous people of Claveria, Misamis Oriental. The grant also funded improved transportation system, agricultural training programs and stripping machines to increase yields and creation of a locally run buying station. In the last four months the farmers have harvested and sold 7,000 kilograms of abaca through the buying station at a higher than market price, and this is providing an average additional US$450 for each family in an area where most families are living on around US$2 per day. All farmers I spoke to were planting more abaca. So this way, as the business grows the farmer’s sales and incomes will also grow. The ECF is also providing other grants funding innovative products through private sector ingenuity specifically targeted to poor and remote communities such as mobile banking, micro-insurance and off-grid renewable energy. In all these cases rural communities make up a majority of the customers so this benefits both the company and society. This is one of a number of areas where donors can (and do) support private enterprises - working with national governments and private sector agencies to reduce barriers for the poor to participate, improving the business enabling environment, supporting programs that build capacity and skills in rural communities and funding partnerships with private firms to support the outreach to the poor.

Hi Brendan, thanks for bringing out the corruption issue. I'll be mindful to avoid bias here, and confess it's an issue I worked on very closely at AusAID and elsewhere. It's actually how I became interested in the role of the private sector in development: in short, I think anti-corruption is among the better entry points for donors into private sector partnerships. Why? Because the private sector has a growing mass which you could now call critical, which is increasingly placing companies between a bribe request and very hard place. Ethical investors and discerning shareholders (quite apart from the Concerned Public) are pressuring companies to operate without the business and dividend advantage which corruption can seem to bring - at least in the short term. Here's where donors come in. They can help broker a middle way by helping change the rules of the game, and supporting local politicians/businesses engaged in this effort. Of course I'm thinking about the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI - see blog proper) which gives companies and the governments who licence and benefit from their activities an opportunity to build transparency and therefore political and business credibility. Supporting options that appeal to the better natures of all players seems to work here (surprise), and it allows the honest as well as the ambivalent the opportunity to point to a better business model. What is the role of donors in addressing corruption? That's a big question! I think the best they can do is make sure their policies and practices are aligned with the best knowledge available - which leads you back to the communities where the corruption is felt. Finding local change champions (like Mums who want to know what happened to the government money that was intended for their children's schooling) and engaging local notions of accountability seem to be among the best long-term investments that donors can make. And engaging small and large businesses who want to see a cleaner operating environment, though here is where donors have tended to get stuck. Yes, the correlation between corruption and human development is pretty clearly made out - Italy seemed to be the exception but perhaps less these days. Hope this is useful.

This is a very informative piece, many thanks. It is rightly cautious in optimism about the role of the private sector in development. Bill Gates advocacy for innovation in development is welcome, but it is also important to consider the implications for outcomes of the most marginalised. See my blog on these issues related to education: http://efareport.wordpress.com/2011/11/26/beyond-busan-1-will-new-partnerships-with-brics-and-the-private-sector-help-get-all-children-into-school/

We very much welcome the appointment of Penny Williams and we kindly request to be supported to go and help train trainers in Bukavu Eastern Congo as the women and girls are really in need of anti rape strategies that will help them avoid,identify, prevent and protect themselves in a practical way as we are doing here in Kenya where we have empowered over 1.5 million women,girls and children since 1998. We were in Bukavu in August and we were only able to train over 50 trainers and that was just like a drop in the sea because because of financial inadequacy. If we can be facilitated and supported we can be able to train over 1,000 women and girls in a period of 2 months and this will address the problem of rape because at the moment men in civilian are the ones leading as perpetrators of rape. As you focus on The Pacific region, please also remember the desperate women of Congo. Thank as i look forward to hear from you Yours sincerely Duncan Oundo Program Officer Dolphin Anti rape and AIDS Control Outreach,Nairobi Kenya

Thanks for a great post that addresses some of the issues around fostering public-private sector partnerships. I particularly like how you address the role of donors, which seems to be under-thought. However, I was wondering where you see corruption within this topic, and how much of a barrier it is to these relationships you discuss. What is the role of donors in addressing corruption? There is a very apparent correlation between corruption and human development, and you can find many of AusAID's recipient countries (and those in which the resource industy has operations and interest) in the lower end of corruption perception. http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/12/corruption-and-development?fsrc=scn/tw/te/dc/corrosivecorruption

As a former country manager for the Enterprise Challenge Fund, I have had some experience of how AusAID has moved towards greater engagement with the private sector and I agree there is a whole lot more to be done in this area. As I understand it, It remains undecided whether the ECF will continue beyond its present status of a pilot and there is plenty of learning there to inform whatever might come next (see here for the 2011 portfolio report:http://www.enterprisechallengefund.org/ecfund/Uploadfile/ECF%20Annual%20Portfolio%20Report%202011%20web%20version(1).pdf). I would make a couple of points about aid agencies engaging with the private sector, with a Pacific island perspective. One is that in PIC economies, the private sector is already 'doing' development even though it may be calling it something else. There still remains the need for meaningful dialogue between agencies such as AusAID and private sector operatives to arrive at a shared understanding of not only the relevant development issues but also the culture(s) of aid agencies and the private sector in order to maximise convergence and minimise misunderstanding and conflict. The other is that in small economies such as those of the Pacific Island countries, it is sometimes difficult to get 'big business' to be able to operate at the (small) level that can really make a difference. With a couple of exceptions PICs are not going to be welcoming global miners to their shores and are (and will remain) very small markets making them unattractive to many 'big' businesses which means that engaging with the private sector needs to be a much more localised 'home grown' activity.

Hi Sam, Very interesting and important points. I agree that lots of the skills needed for this kind of work are probably better to learn "on-the-job." But I don't want to let universities (including my own) off the hook of developing appropriate training programs. The Master of Public Policy Services and Management (despite the wordy name) sounds interesting. Perhaps we will start to see a shift towards "MBAs for not for profit industries." A colleague of mine who has worked in Rwanda for years wrote a paper called "Doctors Without Orders" which is basically about the fact that we need better managers for the billions of dollars going into public health - rather than having doctors and PhDs in biochemistry managing huge scale health projects. And on teh topic of languages that you and Ashlee raised - absolutely. I'm Canadian and French is mandatory for a number of years. Not everyone picks it up but everyone is exposed to it. I like the idea of second language proficiency as a prerequisite for development studies, foreign policy, any internationally-focused degree. Joel