Following severe global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate emergency, wars and conflicts, and inflation, the world is now further off-track from attaining the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The private sector has been held up as a ‘silver bullet,’ with private financing touted as a means of filling the gaps in development undermined by national governments and multilateral institutions. In recent years, the sector has emerged as a key development actor, and given important roles in defining, pursuing and financing development. There is, therefore, a need to ensure that private sector entities abide by the principles of effective development cooperation, and uphold a human rights-based approach in their development projects.
The CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) and The Reality of Aid Network have undertaken this task, through its Private Sector Watch initiative. On November 23, at 7 PM Manila | 12 PM CET, they will launch the Private Sector Watch: Global Synthesis Report 2023, in an event dubbed, “Profiting from Crisis?: Assessing the effectiveness of private sector engagement in development.”
The Private Sector Watch (PS Watch) aims to monitor private sector engagement in development cooperation through case studies from the network’s constituencies. Under the PS Watch, constituencies looked into specific country initiatives where private sector entities are partnering with governments for development, its impact on specific sectors of society, and their compliance with the Kampala Principles. Last year, the first Global Synthesis Report showcased eight case studies zeroing on issues related with migration, agriculture, large-scale infrastructure projects, and peoples’ rights among others.
New case studies, findings, trends and policy recommendations are compiled in the 2023 Report and new entries are set to be released in the PS Watch Online Hub, an online repository of development projects conducted with private sector entities spanning across various countries, sectors, funding modalities, and partnerships.
With the aim to facilitate dialogue among development actors, and promote the monitoring role of CSOs and highlight the potential of MSMEs and social enterprises as potential partners for development cooperation, speakers from various CSOs and sectors, and other development actors will be sharing their perspectives on the private sector’s role in development.
Register here to join the launch: https://bit.ly/PSWatch2023
—
About CPDE. The CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness unites civil society organisations (CSOs) from around the world on the issue of effective development cooperation. They collaborate with civil society organisations and networks in more than a hundred countries, and their members come from six regions and eight sectors: faith-based, feminist, indigenous peoples, international CSOs, labour, migrants, rural, and youth. Visit www.csopartnership.org to learn more.
About The Reality of Aid Network. The Reality of Aid Network is a Southern-led network of CSOs working on issues related to aid, development cooperation, and IFIs. We are based in Quezon City, Philippines. For correspondences, email Clarice Canonizado at ccanonizado@realityofaid.org. Visit our website at www.realityofaid.org for more information.