Experts urge caution on African public-private partnerships that are not “people-centred”

Addis Ababa 29 May (ECA) – Experts examining the role of the private sector and the civil society in the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) today ended a two-day workshop in Addis Ababa and called on African countries to be careful with forging frivolous public private partnerships (PPP) that are not “people-centered”.

In a draft report, which contains key elements of their discussions and recommendations, the experts said African countries should be wary of adopting the same PPP models which “promote corporate social irresponsibility” in countries where, for instance, the provision of water, health, education and other social services have been privatized in the context of PPP.

The experts recommended that regional economic communities (RECs) be mandated to organize national business groups (NBGs) across Africa with the assistance of the NEPAD Secretariat, using notable national business leaders to promote the cause for better recognition and acceptability by the wider community.

“We need to identify business leaders across Africa, bring them together to work out the modalities for the takeoff of an Africa-wide private sector that has the clout to undertake serious negotiations,” the experts said.

While acknowledging that some private sector investors were undertaking cross border banking with some positive impacts, the experts said that the African civil society and the private sector still do not own the African development process, relying often on external charity.

“We require south-south funding arrangements in order for civil society organizations to be better engaged and own African development activities and processes,” the experts said, adding that Africa could create a fund similar to the China African Development Fund created specifically by the Chinese Government to foster the spread of Chinese engagements in Africa.

The experts said that the role of the civil society was to keep the private sector and government in check through constructive dialogue. “At the moment, this all-important dialogue appears not to be strong enough,” they said.

They called on NEPAD Secretariat to collaborate with the private sector and civil society groups to create jobs for displaced persons in Africa, especially in post conflict areas. “A continental annual technology and business fair could be used by the NEPAD Secretariat to bring together researchers and the business community to exchange ideas on areas of mutually beneficial cooperation,” the experts recommended.

The experts also called for a dialogue between the civil society and the NEPAD Business Foundation to create synergy around critical issues such as the economic partnership agreements, the protection of Africa’s domestic industries, unemployment, value-addition tom primary products and jobless growth in many African countries.

In a closing remark, the Chief of NEPAD Support Section at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Prof. Emmanuel Nnadozie, said that ECA had collaborated with the African Union and the African Development Bank to organize the expert group meeting because of the critical contribution envisaged for the civil society and the private sector by the NEPAD founding fathers in the implementation of the program.