Context
Whether climate change mitigation, poverty reduction or regional economic development is on the agenda – the private sector has long participated in shaping global structural policy issues. Consequently, the private sector is a vital partner for development cooperation (DC) in finding innovative and effective solutions. The innovative thrust, technical expertise and capital resources of the private sector can be harnessed to boost the impact of international cooperation (IC).
Against this backdrop, German DC seeks to integrate German and European companies that are or intend to become actively involved in developing countries and emerging economies into the development process. This supports social, economic or environmental change in our partner countries, and simultaneously generates added value for the companies involved.
As technical progress, social development and increasing globalisation continuously shift new topics into the focus of DC, new and adapted cooperation mechanisms between the private sector, government DC and partner countries become necessary.
Objective
The Innovative Approaches for Private Sector Development technical cooperation (TC) programme develops new forms of cooperation between DC and German and European companies or corporate-based foundations, opens up current trends and resulting topics for cooperation, and investigates their feasibility and relevance. The primary objective is to contribute sustainably to improving living conditions in our partner countries, while at the same time, of course, respecting the German Government’s basic development policy guidelines and BMZ requirements.
In general, the programme targets the poor population groups in developing countries and emerging economies, whose living conditions are to be improved by sustainable DC work carried out together with the private sector. The complexity of the themes and trends for new cooperation formats also brings about a change in the corresponding partner landscape. Alongside civil society organisations, programme partners may be companies or corporate-based foundations, or even complete economic clusters and sectors in the partner countries, as well as in Germany.
Approach
New themes relevant to development policy and current trends for potential cooperation arrangements are communicated via various internal and external channels including BMZ, DC scouts, companies and develoPPP.de. Highly significant topics are taken up and developed into service packages. In view of the diversity and complexity of the individual topics, the programme uses both internal professional expertise, e.g. from GIZ’s Sectoral Department, and external consultants. The programme conducts potential analyses and market surveys, as well as organising exchanges between and the participation of different stakeholders and networks. This results in new forms of cooperation between German and European companies and development cooperation and international cooperation in additional thematic areas.