Public – Private Development Partnerships (PPDPs)
Market stall owner: Jean-Christophe Favre, SDC Senior Policy Advisor–Partnerships with the Private Sector
What is a partnership? Why should we develop partnerships with private companies for achieving development goals?
What mutual obligations and benefits can be expected by each party?
Actually, the Message on Switzerland’s International Cooperation 2013 – 2016 recognized the importance of the private sector as a key actor of development; the Swiss Cooperation has been requested to join forces more actively with private companies in order to increase impact at scale and sustainability in the achievement of its development goals. To be noted that since the inception of its activities in 1961, SDC has always been working with and for the private sector. Projects aimed at developing the private sector in the less developed countries where SDC is active, mainly through small enterprise promotion, skills development and financial services. The focus was on micro and small enterprises.
In the last decade, SDC started to explore ‘new’ ways of working with the private sector. New concepts – or sometimes simply new catch – words – have emerged: inclusive markets, social business, bottom of the pyramid, corporate social responsibility, creating shared value, impact investment, sponsoring, etc. These diverse concepts refer to different dimensions – e.g. goals, modalities, type of companies
