You are required to login to view this page.

We had our first CMBD dialogue of the year on “Business in Development: Changing Concepts of Development and Linkages to the Private Sector” on Thursday, 23 February, marking the 5th Anniversary of the CMBD. We were honored to welcome a return visit with Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, who was our inaugural keynote speaker at the first CMBD event in February 2007, and has graciously shared his insights with us on frequent special occasions. We also benefited from a full programme of outstanding guests – Swedish Ambassador to the WTO Joakim Reiter, Director of the UNDP Geneva Office Cécile Molinier, WTO Deputy Director-General Valentine Rugwabiza, Director of the World Bank Group’s Geneva Office Selina Jackson and others from USAID, the German Mission, the Nigerian Mission, ITC, FAO and ILO. We were aided as well by a background briefing note on the Busan Partnership for Effective Development, business-inclusive initiatives at UNDP, the World Bank, and the WTO and in bilateral aid programmes. Participants discussed the challenges of bringing trade and development communities together, concentrating on the development-effectiveness of aid, multiple approaches to partnering with the private sector, the challenges of new donors, balancing markets with regulation, finding the right platform for business engagement in development, linking multinational enterprises with small and medium enterprises and smallholders, the role of government in facilitating distributive models, business as a key source of innovation, the success of ad hoc coalitions and learning how to shift from capacity-building to actual partnerships. We will pick up on these themes in future CMBD dialogues, including our planned visit to the OECD in April.

The UNCTAD Multi-Year Expert Meeting on Enterprise Development Policies and Capacity-Building in Science, Technology and Innovation met during January in Geneva. It was all about pro-poor technology, innovation and entrepreneurship policies.  The recurring theme was that innovation can be fostered by adopting policies that promote entrepreneurship. It was noted that most countries do not have specific entrepreneurship development policies. There are at least as many differences as there are similarities among countries, development objectives, sectoral opportunities, and markets, such that no policy or set of policies will be applicable in all settings. However, UNCTAD’s Entrepreneurship Policy Framework provides a point of departure with implementation guidelines in six categories and a four-step approach for policy makers. See more information here.