"Participation Builds Unity"
"MADE IN AFRICA - FOR AFRICA"
"Participation Builds Unity"
"MADE IN AFRICA - FOR AFRICA"
PRESENTS
PROSPEROUS AFRICA SERIES - FINAL REPORT
**********************************
The Centre
Brussels - Belgium
Peter VERHILLE
July 2005
PROSPEROUS AFRICA SERIES - FINAL REPORT
“Africa’s profitability is one of the best kept secrets
in today’s world economy” Kofi Annan
Introduction
Poverty eradication in Africa via the traditional trade, aid and debt cancellation
routes which have hitherto characterised the EU debate remain key, but they have
been slow to deliver results. The private sector is increasingly seen as the main
provider of growth and contributor to poverty reduction in Africa, but its potential is
still to be fully explored by Brussels policy makers.
The Prosperous Africa Series champions a new dimension for European development
policy. It has highlighted the need for a more structured involvement of the private
sector in both the formulation of European development strategies, and the
conception and operation of practical development initiatives. A significant
community of interests has emerged in Brussels with converging agendas on
approaches to unlocking the business of development. The Centre intends to
maintain a process of reflection and activity towards this objective.
This report summarises the overall findings of the Prosperous Africa Series which
were held under the Chatham House rule. It includes recommendations for specific
policies and measures which Europe could usefully promote to help unlock Africa’s
potential for value creation and ensuing social development. Some of the
recommendations are easier to achieve than others, indeed many need to be further
developed, but they are all pertinent to the shaping of new, successful development
policies.
PAS Round Tables
On behalf of the contributors to the Prosperous Africa Series, The Centre offers this
report to the European Institutions and EU policy making community. It signals a
desire among stakeholders to broaden thinking on the role of the private sector in
delivering tangible progress on development in realistic timescales. The findings are
not written in tablets of stone, but should provoke fresh debate leading to action on
this important issue in future months and years.
The Centre, July 2005
Since 2004 and at the request of a wide range of stakeholders and policy makers,
The Centre has organised a range of activities which aim to enrich and profile debate
on development policy matters.
These include:
Returns on investment in Africa are amongst the highest in the world and several
local and multinational companies have made significant positive investments in
Africa in such diverse areas as telecommunications, flower cultivation and tourism to
name but a few.
Africa’s image and its general predicament as a so-called ‘failed’ investment location
has been and continues to be perpetuated by the one-dimensional focus of
traditional communication channels, including the media. War, famine, political
instability, corruption and HIV/AIDS tend to carry the day over the promise of value
creation in Africa. Communication which focuses only on Africa’s political and social
troubles, while failing to highlight economic success stories, serves to mould a
negative climate.
The small size of Africa’s business base and the lack of government and corporate-driven
communication initiatives about business opportunities in Africa also
aggravate Africa’s predicament. Similarly, international NGOs fundraising campaigns
have tended to position Africa as a “lose” rather than a “win” proposition. Finally,
the stereotype of a uniformly impoverished continent has been reinforced by national
and inter-governmental development institutions, which consider Africa only as a
single geopolitical entity.
Creating a Virtuous Communications Cycle
What is needed is a virtuous communications cycle: replacing traditional, ineffective
communication approaches with pro-development and pro-investment
communications strategies. Europe must consider the crucial role that
communication can play in moving beyond the traditional development policy
paradigms, by focussing also on the practical inputs and outputs of wealth creation
in Africa.
The development programmes of the European Commission/European Union in
Africa are a case in point. Some of these Europe-funded development projects
deliver material for positive messages that can be widely communicated, aimed at
better and more effectively representing the 54 countries of the continent.
Unfortunately, communication tools as a positive factor for development are rarely
factored into development thinking, policy and action.
Leveraging the skills and knowledge of journalists are also necessary to improve the
quality and quantity of information at local and international level. The private sector
has a key role in helping to communicate the multiplicity and richness of Africa, but
mechanisms need to be introduced to incentivise companies to become involved in
such a task, beyond their core business. For their part, African governments should
harness the benefits of good governance and communication to target investors,
thereby promoting an investor friendly image for their nations.
Much stronger interaction and joint activity is necessary among stakeholders who
traditionally work in separate silos to drive forward effective “multiplier”
communications on business opportunities in Africa. This requires concerted and
sustained efforts involving national and international government institutions, civil
society and the private sector itself.
…but Perception can be improved!
2) Good Governance
3) Media Capacity
4) Communication Campaign
The private sector needs greater recognition and support from the other main
players in the field: governments, donor agencies and NGOs. In particular, there is
a need to build business capacity in Africa. This, among other things, means
improving the conditions for investment and reducing the risk factors which hinder
economic initiative, including red tape, corruption, lack of infrastructure, and the
endemic healthcare crises.
In a global market, too many investors currently weigh negatively the risk factors
which they perceive in Africa against the investment opportunities in other parts of
the world. In part, this is attributable to the lack of adequate information about
proven success stories and adequate cost/benefit analysis. Many entrepreneurs,
local and international, who have adopted a longer-term perspective to investment
in African markets have been rewarded with success. In turn, economic success has
permitted them to become vital contributors to social development in Africa: through
employment creation and their contribution to education, training, healthcare and
capacity building.
On the supply side, numerous international capital and funding incentives are
available to entrepreneurs, but their focus and disbursement methods are
insufficiently adapted to the needs on the ground. This situation is compounded by
the general lack of worthwhile, value-added projects.
Investment climate EU-Member State coordination are essential
The EU can seek to influence the parameters that are key to the successful
development of business in Africa. For example, it would be pointless to support the
development of SMEs locally if the investment climate were not right. The first
priority, therefore, for development projects seeking to leverage the private sector
should be precisely the focus on investment climate. The strong political will of
national governments and local authorities is needed to commit local stakeholders to
the success of business investment, and in this to promote active partnerships
among all development stakeholders, including civil society. The greatest boost to
fresh investment that any country can provide is to show that businesses are already
there and operating profitably and in a sustainable manner.
The two greatest challenge from a European perspective are: (1) To coordinate
various existing measures – national and international – which aim to promote
private sector engagement in Africa, but which too often, at best overlap, at worst
contradict one another. (2) For EU and Member State development strategies to be
much more overt and specific in targeting and involving the private sector.
Moreover, for the private sector to play a much greater role in the emergence of a
modern Africa, it itself needs to be much more vocal in voicing its views on which
development policies will best serve its interests, and those of Africa.
… and What needs to be done!
1) Improving the business environment
2) Maximising investment opportunities
3) Partnerships in action
4) Investing in People, Research and Development
unlocking the business of development
In the early summer of 2005, The Centre organised the Prosperous Africa Series
(PAS). Through a series of round table debates, the PAS brought together a network
of stakeholders and policy makers who believe that European development policy
could be further advanced with a more active consideration of the role the private
sector, both as a player and partner to international development groups and donor
agencies in delivering development policy goals.
The Centre organised two high-level stakeholder round tables on the relationship
between private sector investment and African development on 2 and 16 June 2005. The meetings were attended by representatives of private companies, international
development organisations, African governments, the EU institutions, NGOs and the
media.
These dialogues covered two fundamental, inter-related areas:
* the role of communications and media in promoting private sector investment,
* measures to overcome risk in doing business in Africa.
The discussions were informed by expert presentations given by:
Bram Schim van der Loeff, European Investment Bank
François Misser, BBC Afrique
Martin de Koning, Celtel
Gilles Garcia, World Bank
Frans van den Boom, IAVI
Franz Waibel, Pfizer
Allan Kamau, Africa Investor
William Day, UNDP
Peter White, Procter & Gamble
Richard Boulter, DFID.
Peter.Verhille@thecentre.eu.com
Tel: +32 2 548 0260
The Centre (www.thecentre.eu.com)
The PAS was organised by The Centre, Brussels' first think-do tank as part of our
wider debate series around Globalisation and Participation issues.
The Centre’s aim is to pioneer new forms of dialogue and promote better
communication among business, civil society and public policy leaders in Europe. It
does this through two complementary spheres of activity: a forum for developing,
exchanging, and driving forward ideas on European and global policy issues and an
“intelligent communications” consultancy advising clients on EU affairs and
communications strategy.
• Brussels launch of the Tony Blair Commission for Africa report by Michel
Camdessus and Sir Nick Stern.
• Action for Africa 2005 - Brussels consultation about PM Blair’s Commission for
Africa led by South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and UK Chief
Secretary to the Treasury Paul Boateng.
• Screening of “Living with Hunger”. Debate led by its producer and leading
African documentary maker Sorius Samura.
• Screening of, “The Devil’s Footpath” by June Arunga and debate on The African
Brain Drain.
• Launch of ActionAid’s “The Future of EU Development”.
• Screening of the documentary “Africa: Open for Business”, part-financed by the
World Bank, and debate with its producer, Carol Pineau (frequent contributor to
CNN).
• Numerous thematic meetings with the World Bank, European Commission, Terre
des Hommes, Aga Khan Foundation, Oxfam, ActionAid, United Nations. Full list
available on the website.
• Multiple screenings of “The Girl in the Café”, a BBC film by Richard Curtis
drawing attention to the G8 summit in July 2005.
The three screenings were
introduced by Glennys Kinnock (MEP), John Grant (UK Ambassador to the EU)
and Peter Mandelson (EC Trade Commissioner).
Roundtable: “Effective communications: Improving Africa’s Investment Climate”.
A problem of perception…
In spite of the many positive stories there are to report, Africa suffers from portrayal
as a hopeless, negative continent. This is the result of a lack of knowledge and of
misrepresentation of the modern Africa.
1) Partnerships
Communication partnerships and interaction between stakeholders are key
to improving perceptions of Africa. Stakeholders already operating in Africa
can better coordinate their efforts to optimise resources for communication
activities, aimed at highlighting existing and promoting new investment
opportunities. Examples of concrete initiatives:
1. Local Donor round tables to be established in Africa in association with civil
society and the corporate sector to improve the visibility of positive
investment climates and focus stakeholders on realistic value creation
opportunities. The objective should be one of “universal access to pro-development
information”
.
2. International business networking programmes with a strong communications
component to encourage partnerships between African and international
companies and help identify sectoral investment niches in Africa.
3. Consortia of businesses, public institutions and NGOs to sponsor awards for
media reporting on business in Africa.
4. Government and donor agency-led press campaigns, focussing on past and
future achievements in development, highlighting successful initiatives
involving the private sector.
5. NGOs, public institutions and private companies campaigning together on the
theme “When African development and business success stories are bound
together”.
Good governance is not only a motto or a phrase; it is an essential tool to
change the perceived lack of political stability in Africa. Good governance is
vital to support international investment and progress in this area should be
pro-actively communicated to “pull” investors’ interest. Examples of
concrete initiatives:
1. International development programmes to support communication around
three areas: infrastructure, governance and investment climate;
2. Government and business sectors must share “best practice” and
communicate on such matters effectively both with each other and with
other development partners (workshops and training);
3. Greater emphasis on pro-active communication by successful businesses on
principles and values which are important to the corporate sector in Africa:
transparency, best practice and corporate governance (role of shareholders);
4. Roundtables with governments, donors and corporations to improve good
governance for business investment in Africa; results to be monitored and
communicated widely.
Improving capacity among Africa’s media, and building up knowledge
among non-African media are fundamental towards correcting Africa’s
distorted image among widespread investor audiences. Examples of
concrete initiatives:
1. Build capacity among African media and journalists through training
workshops sponsored by local/international public institutions;
2. Media training on development issues and business opportunities in
developing countries for journalists in donor/investor countries, financed by
public institutions;
3. Programmes to encourage cooperation between international media and
African journalists;
4. Work to increase the number of journalists specialising in development issues
among those accredited to national donor governments and the European
Institutions;
5. Increase the intensity and quality of information about business opportunities
disseminated by national donor governments and European Institutions.
Insufficient positive attention is paid to Africa because of the lack of
concerted communication campaigns focused on the tangible investment
opportunities which exist on the continent. Greater interaction and a
common communication agenda is required between development
stakeholders. Examples of concrete initiatives:
1. Substantive communication campaigns to improve the negative perception of
Africa’s investment climate, led by African governments in cooperation with
donor institutions, corporations and NGOs;
2. Organisation of exhibitions and workshops in richer countries targeting media
and investors;
3. Organisation of press trips for the international media to highlight success
stories in African countries;
4. More active media promotion of valuable economic indicators for African
countries, many of which already exist;
5. Mobilising “African champions of investment”, drawn from the private sector,
to improve the information deficit on business activities in Africa;
6. Creation of an international board of media personalities to follow up and
promote concerted communication initiatives, as in the example of the
documentary “Africa: Open for Business”.
Roundtable: “Overcoming risk to unlock the private sector’s
contribution to African development”.
Why we need to unlock the private sector’s contribution to
African development…
The private sector is increasingly seen as the main provider of growth and poverty
reduction in Africa. In light of the limited impact of many traditional development
initiatives, engaging private enterprise is now considered as key to Africa’s
economic, hence social development. To unlock this potential, however, new policy
approaches and tangible incentives are required. To be successful in a development
framework, the private sector’s contribution must be sustainable rather than
incidental. Development policies, national and international, must also been aligned
to the needs of private entrepreneurship. In turn, successful entrepreneurship must
be open to addressing the social development needs in its catchment area regardless
of location. As the norm, private sector investment in Africa should not be seen as a
philanthropic tool, but rather as a long-term opportunity.
Infrastructure and the political environment are essential to the well-being
and development of the private sector in Africa. International
organisations, governments and civil society have to ensure that businesses
can operate in the right environment to ensure that they deliver sustainable
benefits to local African economies. Examples of concrete initiatives:
1. International development agencies to focus their expertise more directly
and in a non-cumbersome manner on supporting and facilitating private
investment in Africa (e.g. business networking, knowledge of developing
countries, identification and reduction of risk);
2. African governments to frame business-friendly policies, laws and
regulations with the support of international development agencies to
reduce over-regulation and red tape and to improve transparency, quality
and the capacity of institutions administering the rules, e.g. in the context
of the Economic Partnership Agreements which are currently being
negotiated;
3. Continued refinement and promotion of common global instruments needed
to incentivise investors – e.g. benchmarking of economic and social
conditions in African countries (such as those of the World Bank), or tools to
allow for a proper economic pre-assessment of projects, and benchmarking
of impact, sustainability and long-term benefits of projects;
4. Large scale and co-ordinated investment by international organisations in
infrastructure needed to improve business conditions.
Africa offers many opportunities that have not been brought into play.
Market opportunities are thwarted by a number of real and perceived
obstacles: a high perception of risk, limited scale of businesses, lack of
access to markets, etc. Stakeholders already operating in Africa can work
together to overcome such difficulties. One of the key issues is to make sure
that the right players work together at different levels. Examples of
concrete initiatives proposed are:
1. International development agencies to promote partnerships with local
companies that can channel investments and offer market access to foreign
companies;
2. Greater government support for, and regulation of local business
intermediaries that can help identify market opportunities and overcome
constraints;
3. EU/EU member state to promote a greater sharing among global investment
audiences of best practices achieved by successful business ventures in
Africa, involving real-life case studies brought to life by the entrepreneurs
themselves;
4. Improvement and simplification of mechanisms to help investors identify and
contribute financially to worthwhile, sustainable public development projects
where private sector involvement could make a big difference. This might
include a task force at international level to coordinate and to support
voluntary initiatives that target market opportunities in Africa;
5. European/international development programmes to be better co-coordinated
and attuned to allow the scaling up of pilot projects which have been kick-started
through private-sector initiative;
6. International development agencies to support in an non-bureaucratic
manner the introduction of market mechanisms to cover the management of
risk; e.g. the promotion of the micro-insurance sector;
7. Organisation of multi-stakeholder “business initiative” platforms in African
countries to share information, build trust and resolve business development
issues in an open, transparent manner;
8. Europe to champion specific sectors where greater private sector involvement
can make difference; e.g. health and tourism.
Partnerships involving, in various formats, the public and private sector can
provide the necessary impetus to support private sector investment in
Africa. The specific African dimensions of public-private partnerships need
to be defined more clearly. Example of concrete initiatives:
1. The role of international development organisations, in conjunction with
African governments, should be to develop criteria for flexible, undogmatic
public-private ventures, with an eye to wealth creation and development.
This means ensuring a proper fiscal environment, transparent and
competitive public procurement procedures, dedicated as well as experienced
public sector teams operating within an appropriate legal and institutional
framework.
2. Best-practice partnership models need to be clearly defined and disseminated
at the international level to help foreign investors initiate joint-venture
initiatives with civil society and governments, and vice-versa;
3. The EU to promote a pro-development dialogue in the area of public-private
ventures; among the full range of development partners, including the
private sector, to arrive at a common vision on trust, clarity of roles, equity
and opportunity
Two specific areas are key for African development: people, and research
and development. An educated workforce is vital to ensure the pro-development
involvement of private sector. International donor
organisations also need to support new models of development where
research and development are drivers. Example of concrete initiatives:
1. International organisations, governments and NGOs to offer even greater
support for training and education projects which are focussed on improving
the business climate as a driver of wealth creation; this might include
financial incentives for corporate CSR programmes in partnership with other
stakeholders to ensure education and training of local workforce;
2. Africans’ receptivity to business creation opportunities to be encouraged by
building relevant content into school and university curricula;
3. Concerted initiatives to improve heath management and delivery, which are
key to overcoming the growing scarcity of human resources as a result of
disease pandemics; private businesses to be involved in both the planning
and the delivery.
4. Development policies to focus on Research and Development (R&D) as
drivers for development and poverty alleviation. R&D can help identify
sustainable and innovative solutions focused on improvements to living
conditions in Africa.
5. Greater united international efforts could be made to engage the world’s best
scientists and successful companies in a drive to encourage innovative
approaches to research adapted to the needs of developing countries.
**********************************
WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMMENT?
SEND US AN EMAIL:
CONTACT US
***********************************
BACK TO
THIS INDEX
BACK TO
FRONT PAGE
***********************************
DISCLAIMER
The
Foundation for the Development of Africa
Accepts no responsibility for incorrect detail listed above!
Kindly notify us of any discrepancies:
***********************************
"Sustainable Development is the action and/or act of bringing people
***********************************
THE FDA SUPPORTS AND ENDORSES:
© Copyright 1999
Website search technology courtesy:
and/or processes into position for the effective use in the support and/or delivery
of efforts, conducts and the cause!"
Foundation for the Development of Africa
The Hosting of this Website is Proudly Sponsored by:
FreeFind.com