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PSE Toolbox
The PSE Toolbox contains the most important tools, guidelines and websites that help you through the project cycle while engaging with the private sector. You find them below or in the boxes at the right. For inputs on particular thematic areas, check out the menu with specific topic pages on the right side or contact the E+E team (See box - For more information on the right or on the E+E Team page).
The PSE Handbook is the main guidance document for PSE at the SDC and can be downloaded for offline use (see also link below under normative documents). It provides information on the general orientation and principles of PSE at the SDC, guidance on the implementation of PSE projects, and elaborates on the Risk Management Process for partnerships with the private sector, including roles and responsibilities. Important: SDC operational units are required to involve the CEP (bernard.zaugg@eda.admin.ch) in the early planning stage of any PSE collaboration.
Online Tools
SDC
Eleven videos take you through the key topics of PSE, in line with the PSE General Guidance and Handbook. You might watch one video because the topic is of specific interest to you or enjoy the videos as an online learning tool in their entirety. The offer can be used flexibly. Guidance is provided outlining the key elements per video, helping you to make the decision if the video is right for you, and hopefully spark curiosity, too.
Normative Documents
SDC
[666 kB]
The General Guidance on PSE provides an orientation on the various forms of cooperation between the SDC and private sector actors and explains the engagement of SDC towards conducive economic policy frameworks. The General Guidance was drafted by the SDC in the course of 2020 and consulted with selected actors from the federal administration, the private sector and the civil society and is fully aligned with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN.
SDC
[8 MB]
The Handbook provides comprehensive yet hands-on guidance for SDC staff in the field and at HQ who design, implement and steer partnerships with the private sector. The Handbook relies on lessons learnt from the past and provides a common basis for the future. It formulates a vision and a medium-term orientation for the SDC’s PSE with the goal of maximising impact while carefully managing risk
Working Aids
SDC
[2.8 MB]
Private sector engagement (PSE) is a priority for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), as highlighted in the federal dispatch 2021-2024. Within the universe of potential private sector partners, Social and Impact Enterprises (SIEs) – those enterprises with an intention to solve a social or environmental problem – are a natural ally for actors like SDC to achieve development outcomes. There are several reasons that make working with SIEs particularly interesting. There is an explicit alignment of vision and commitment to address a development challenge, when compared to other private sector partners. SIEs strive to be profitable and are sustainable beyond SDC support, when compared to not-for profit partners. They can therefore achieve high impact in a cost-effective way for SDC, since support is only supplemental and short-term. They can also promote highly innovative ways of achieving SDGs which can stimulate learning at SDC. That said, PSE overall and SDC working with SIEs in particular, is a relatively new way of achieving development outcomes. Challenges include: questions on how to find the right partner, the ideal governance for a partnership, the best financial instruments to support the SIE, and impact management. Partnerships with SIEs require careful design and agile implementation management. This guidance paper, the first of its kind, highlights some of these emerging issues. While the insights presented here do not constitute conclusive guidance on how to successfully engage SIEs, we discuss noteworthy findings and potential solutions
Mercy Corps
This PSE toolkit was created because we recognize that engaging actively with the private sector on a program level helps us sustainably fulfill our strategic goals articulated in our Vision for Change. We understand that unique challenges arise when we engage the private sector as true partners and want to increase our understanding of how to do this more effectively. We have a desire to improve our skills and capacity agency-wide, so that we are more successful and consistent in our private sector engagement. Finally we want to prioritize private sector engagement (PSE), and a complementary market-driven approach, as a way to leverage resources to achieve sustainable, pro-poor change.
Mercy Corps
Purpose To identify and map private sector firms working in targeted sectors. Description In some situations there may be dozens or hundreds of potential private sector partners that we may engage with to meet program goals. In others there may be very few. Understanding who our potential partners are and narrowing that list to a manageable number of options is a critical step. This is done by defining partnership criteria and researching the environment to identify high potential private sector partners. It is important to recognize that this can be a gradual, iterative process. Often the best partners are not immediately obvious; it requires in-depth market analysis and extensive networking, to determine the most appropriate partners. Who is the best partner also depends on what our program goals are, the level of effort it takes to nurture a relationship with them, cultural and political issues, and other matters outside our influence, including a potential partner’s capacity and other goals and objectives they have unrelated to our programming. This tool is designed to provide a starting point for the networking required to find the best private sector partner and build a productive relationship.
Mercy Corps
Purpose To identify business sectors where there is opportunity for private sector engagement in support of our program strategies and to focus relationship-building efforts and exploration of partnerships. Description This is a high-level mapping tool used to identify business sectors with potential to engage private sector partners and organize summary data to support those choices. This tool is suitable if: - We have not defined a specific program objective or sector but want to build an understanding of the private sector for future opportunities. This scan is done broadly and well in advance of a specific engagement opportunity. - We have defined a program objective or concept, perhaps in preparation or response to an RFA, and need to identify feasible business sectors and private firms. This tool is not suitable if: - A specific business sector is already identified. - A private sector partner is already identified. Either of these could occur if the parameters of the funding mandate intervention in a designated sector or with a specific private sector firm.
Mercy Corps
Purpose To structure research into the risks and compatibility of a potential private sector partner. Description Due diligence is the process that Mercy Corps uses to determine possible risks and advantages of new private sector partnerships. The inter-related purposes of due diligence is to ensure that partnerships: 1. Are compatible with, and contribute to, our mission to promote secure, productive, and just communities; 2. Do not pose a serious risk to Mercy Corps’ reputation for integrity with the populations we serve, host country governments, the development community, and our donor base. 3. Will not pose any risk to the security and wellbeing of Mercy Corps staff. In many cases, a due diligence assessment will not result in a “black or white” picture. The due diligence process is designed to present a balanced assessment of the potential positive and negative aspects of new relationships based on each particular case. This will allow the staff negotiating these partnerships to make informed decisions about where, when, and how to partner with specific firms.
Mercy Corps
Purpose Evaluate a potential private sector partner for feasibility on the administrative, fiscal, technical, legal, political, and social/ethical levels. Description A feasibility assessment shows the likelihood that engaging with a specific private sector partner will adequately support the program goals. It also looks at what challenges may arise and what steps can be taken to mitigate these challenges. The Feasibility Assessment Tool is not intended to gauge the likelihood of success of the overall program/intervention; that should be completed as part of the program design. The feasibility assessment is complementary to, yet different than the due diligence process. Due diligence determines whether we would want to partner with a particular private sector firm based on the risk that partnership might present. The feasibility assessment explores whether that partner has the expertise, standing, and orientation to be a successful. It is much more oriented to whether they can meet the strategic program goals. See the Due Diligence Assessment Tool for more information about the due diligence process.
Mercy Corps
Purpose Identify key stakeholders and evaluate their influence and interest regarding a private sector engagement with Mercy Corps. Description Stakeholder analysis is a process that systematically develops an objective understanding of who are the key stakeholders related to our engagement, and to recognize how much influence and interest they have in our program. It also establishes a criteria-based prioritization which leads to developing an appropriate engagement strategy.
SDC
[14.4 MB]
A summary of lessons learned by Market Systems Development Practitioners. This document aims to capture some lessons and tips on how to form and manage partnerships with Private Sector Actors. Topics: • Who to partner with? • How to find and contact partners? • Deal making: how and what to negotiate? • Financing: what and how? • Contractual arrangements: what to consider? • Managing partnerships
SDC
[2.6 MB]
The operational guide for the making markets work for the poor (M4P) approach (2nd edition 2015, co-funded by SDC)
Case Studies
SDC
[3.1 MB]
Poverty related neglected diseases (PRND) such as tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV affect predominantly the world’s poorest countries where there is limited health care infrastructure, a lack of universal insurance schemes as well as low economic power of patients to pay for necessary medical treatment. As a result, there has been little financial incentive for the global pharmaceutical industry to invest in research and development (R&D) to develop effective medical products that improve the health situation of people in lower and middle income countries (LMIC).
PDPs now have an important role to play in shaping the global health R&D system for equitable access to health products and technologies in LMIC and beyond. Important issues that influence the future of PDPs are an increased focus on access consideration in the product lifecycle, new funding models, synergies between PDPs, enhanced coordination in the global health R&D system, the influence of technology and digitalisation of processes, and data collection for costing.
SDC
[1.7 MB]
Social Impact Incentives (SIINC) are an innovative finance tool that uses public and philanthropic finance to help Social and Impact Enterprises (SIEs) grow and scale their impact and make them more attractive for private providers of capital. SIINC has gained significant traction with major players in the field, and it is increasingly being recognized and adopted by important actors in the international impact eco-system. The SIINC concept of rewarding impact has evolved into a wider range of impact-linked finance instruments and led to the establishment of an Impact-Linked Finance Fund
SDC
[1.1 MB]
This case study is about the Impact-Linked Finance Fund (ILFF), a funding mechanism that pools and manages impact-linked finance (ILF) resources and builds the nascent ILF eco-system. ILF refers to a growing portfolio of financing solutions for high-impact market-based organisations that directly link financial rewards to the achievement of positive social outcomes and mobilises private investments.
The work of the Fund will be shaped by several trends and factors, including the increased availability of evidence and data, the use of digital tools and effective self (or user) reporting, an increased willingness to experiment with the full range of ILF solutions, to learn from these experiments and to share findings, and a rapid expansion to a wider range of actors in the social, private and public sector including traditional start-ups, corporations, and financial institutions.
SDC
[2.3 MB]
Aceli Africa provides support and smart incentives to commercial lenders and impact investors to finance high-impact low-profit agri-enterprises in Africa that would otherwise not be served by financial institutions due to risk and profitability concerns. Aceli aims at incentivising capital suppliers to provide more finance to high-impact agri-enterprises than what these lenders would otherwise be prepared to finance given risk and profitability concerns. In that way, Aceli seeks to positively impact livelihoods of farmers, workers, and their communities as well as the local environment. Ultimately, Aceli aims at creating a more effective and inclusive marketplace for high-impact agriculture finance in Africa that will be adopted by governments locally and become sustainable and independent of donor funding in the long term. Aceli adapts a financing innovation that has been co-created by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) for social and impact enterprise finance, the so-called Social Impact Incentives (SIINC), to the new context of agricultural lending in Africa.
Relevant News
 11 October 2022
Four Case Studies about some of SDC’s innovative Private Sector Partnerships (PSE) were just published. They portray 1) Social Impact Incentives (SIINC), 2) Impact-Linked Finance Fund (ILFF), 3) Catalytic Market Facility Aceli Africa (Aceli), and 4) Product Development Partnerships (PDPs). The Case Studies provide an easy to read (and well-layouted) introduction to those projects and mechanisms and can also be shared outside of SDC.
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