Partnering for Global Development; evolving links between businesses and international development agencies

Almost every week there are news reports about the state of the world. We hear about the effects of global warming, the world’s diminishing natural resources, the high rates of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and how societies lack basic needs including health care, education, sanitation systems, and adequate shelter. We also read stories about the impacts of globalization, corporate greed, and how corporations are contributing to the demise of the world. Yet not all the stories are doom and gloom – there is some news coverage of how corporations contribute to solving the problems which affect society and bring about much needed change to those who need it the most.

One small example of this is the $3.5 billion contribution multinational corporations make to overseas development assistance, according to figures in a 2009 Business Civic Leadership Center survey. And depending on how in-kind contributions are calculated multinational companies, if they were a country, would rank in the top 20 of the largest overseas aid providers globally. Given these figures, it’s not surprising that international development agencies including UK’s DFID, America’s USAID and Germany’s GTZ have increasingly recognized the important role that the private sector plays in development, and are seeking to engage with multinational corporations in a range of countries, on a range of issues including access to financial capital, education, clean water and public health.

As collaboration between multi-national corporations and international development agencies gains importance, the Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) wanted to understand more about development agencies’ strategies. BCLC commissioned Corporate Citizenship to write the report Partnering for Global Development: The evolving links between businesses and international development agencies. The report looks at ten international development agencies and considers their drivers for corporate partnerships, partnerships strategies, and assesses the challenges and opportunities for collaboration.

We found that collaborating with corporations is relatively new, with specific initiatives dating back to the late 1990s. Additionally, there are two basic approaches to engaging corporations—top down and bottom up, and most agencies look for partners where there is a shared goal to address a development issue and where agencies can leverage the expertise of the corporations. For example, USAID collaborated with Coca-Cola to promote sustainable water management in 17 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. As a result of the alliance, 25,000 underserved residents near Jakarta, Indonesia have improved hygiene and household water disinfection, 21,000 people in Mali have increased access to clean water, and a 45,000 people in Ethiopia have a supply of potable water and improved school sanitation.

In another partnership between German Development Agency, GTZ and the German Coffee Association (Deutsche Kaffee-Verband – DKV) established a code of conduct, called The Common Code for the Coffee Community, which includes social and environmental factors as well as quality improvements within the international coffee sector. The goal is to create high-quality coffee for the companies on a long-term basis, whilst at the same time, creating sustainable livelihoods and improving the living conditions of suppliers, most of whom are small-scale farmers.

While these two examples highlight successful partnerships, there often are big hurdles. Navigating international development agencies can be complex and challenging. Agencies often prefer to partner with companies where there is a common goal, and mapping business priorities to development agencies’ isn’t always clear cut. Another major hurdle is the differing time frames. Agencies have lengthy processes and businesses typically have shorter time frames.

I’d like to believe that we’ve reached the tipping point for engaging corporations in development issues, and the USAID and GTZ partnerships are two examples of what’s to come in the future. Certainly, more needs to be done to bridge the barriers, and BCLC’s report is a first step in brokering partnerships and navigating through various development agencies.

For more insights into working with development agencies, read the report; Partnering for Global Development: The evolving links between businesses and international development agencies, found on Corporate Citizenship‘s website; www.corporate-citizenship.com/whats-new/publications.

Jennifer Peckman is a consultant at Corporate Citizenship’s New York office, where she manages US community investment related client projects. Previously, Jen worked for Chevron’s corporate community engagement group, where she managed two of the department’s signature programmes.
She gained public relations experience working for high-tech public relations agencies in San
Francisco. As the communications manager at the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, she led its communications strategies and was responsible for developing the company’s marketing and
communications collateral.
Jen has also conducted research projects for UN Fund for International Partnerships and the World Bank, and developed recommendations as to how these agencies can better partner with the private sector.
jen.peckman@corporate-citizenship.com