Many donors aspire to have more equal, longer-term and strategic relationships with business in achieving inclusive economic outcomes in developing countries, complementing their traditional focus on bilateral work with governments. Increasingly, donors are also asked to engage with their own domestic companies to deliver mutual benefits for donor and partner country economies
The aim of the Private Sector Engagement Working Group is to enhance the ability of donor agency staff to engage with business, whether domestic or in developing countries, as partners – based on appropriate operational systems and programming frameworks as well as appropriate staff roles, skills and organisational culture.
The OECD has proposed a broad definition of PSE as ‘an activity that aims to engage the private sector for development results, and involves the active participation of the private sector’ (OECD, 2016). The DCED PSE Working Group in its Operational Framework (2019) focuses on two specific PSE strategies:
The Working Group, established in 2017, is chaired by GIZ.
The group’s current focus is to contribute to the DCED’s learning agenda on how to achieve (and measure) mutual benefits for donor and partner countries, at the nexus of PSE, trade and other national interests. The group also continues to have a strong interest in organisational aspects and effective instruments of private sector engagement, and the interface with financial institutions – building on many years of facilitating peer exchange and learning sessions in the safe space of the group. Specifically, current activities include
