develoPPP for jobs promotes training and employment in Africa

Project description

Title: develoPPP for jobs
Commissioned by: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Global
Overall term: 2019 to 2022

Context

Creating prospects for employment and income is a key challenge for economic development in Africa. The German Government aims to ‘challenge more and support differently’, and has used this approach in establishing reform partnerships with partner countries and the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation.

There is a focus on promoting employment for women and young people, particularly in areas with major potential for job creation, such as the textiles industry. By linking public and private sector involvement, development partnerships with the private sector can improve living and economic conditions in emerging economies.

Development partnerships with the private sector help to meet economic and development policy objectives. In the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation, they are effective in mobilising private investment. More and more companies are aligning their business activities with global values and standards and meeting their social responsibilities while also looking to open up new production and sales markets. However, private companies and investors are not yet using the full potential of development partnerships with the private sector to contribute to training and employment in Africa.

Objective

Development partnerships with the private sector improve training and employment in the partner countries in Africa.

Approach

Development partnerships involve cooperation on the part of governments, civil society and responsible companies. This cooperation allows the skills and resources of all those involved to be combined. These partnership projects are financed partly by the public sector and partly by the private sector and are jointly designed, planned and implemented.

The develoPPP for jobs programme was set up in order to implement the partnerships. With this programme, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is promoting private sector involvement where business opportunities and the need for development policy action overlap – without being limited to specific sectors.

Four times a year, companies can participate in a competition for ideas organised by develoPPP.de. The competitions are open to all German and European companies and companies from emerging economies. Development partnerships resulting from these competitions can run for up to three years and cover a wide range of industries and topics. The company bears at least half of the total costs.

To ensure that projects achieve the desired results, high demands are placed on the project concepts with regard to their sustainability, broad impact and potential for innovation and scalability. In developing the concept, attention is also paid to the long-term nature of the business interest and the benefits for development cooperation and the company.

The project creates new local structures by involving a particularly large number of local actors, anchoring knowledge in local institutions and focusing on skills development. The aim is for as many people as possible to benefit from the project over a long period of time.