Public-private partnerships in agriculture

30 November 2017. The Hague, the Netherlands. Public-private partnerships can, and do, lead to transformational change. But usually they do not. PPPLab explored what it really takes to use PPPs for transformational change during the PPPLab Day.

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How to stimulate change in the institutions and regulations that shape food and water systems, as well as transform how these institutions and the individuals in them work together? And what changes are needed to create deep, widespread public goods which harness sensible business approaches? These key questions formed the basis for the day’s exploration.

• What the heck is transformational change?: Simon Usher, former CEO Bonsucro the Global Sugarcane Platform
• Re-thinking risk to finance boundary-pushing PPPs: Karel Nierop, Fund Manager, Triodos Investment Management
• Do’s and don’ts in partnering with governments for transformational change: Charles Abugre of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) of the Government of Ghana. (View Profile Here)
• Developing a sound scaling strategy for your PPP: Wouter van Vliet, Director Larive International
• PPPs for sector transformation?: Jan Willem Molenaar, Senior Consultant Aidenvironment; Marja Thijssen and Gareth Borman, Integrated Seed Sector Development, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation
• Partnering for transformation: Wilma Roozenboom, Partnerships for Sustainable Development; Ricardo Bosshard, Director WWF Chile; Richard Piechocki, Sustainable Business Strategist at Rabobank
  The heads of both organisations found in each other a desire to contribute to more structural sustainability and together, they chose to transform the salmon industry in Chile. In just 3 years, they have managed to push for new sector sustainability standards and get 25% of the sector to sign up.

Masterclass: developing a sound scaling strategy for your PPP 

Scaling is a buzzword in the field of international development. It has the connotation of providing a real solution to create breakthroughs for transformational change. However, the popularity of the term is not necessarily matched with a clear understanding on how scaling works in practice. 

PPPs for sector transformation? 

Sector approaches are the next ‘system level’ at which change is sought for in the agri-food domain. This session looked at what a sector approach implies and how it can tackle issues beyond the scope of an individual value chain. Looking to the role that PPPs can play in supporting sector transformation, the session drawed on practical experiences of IIED, Sustainable Food Lab and Aidenvironment which resulted in a novel framework for sector governance, asking what is really needed for PPPs to have the impetus and capability to catalyse sector transformation? 

Partnerships that can take on transformation 

If a partnership strives for deep change, that has implications for how the partnership is built and run. This session reviewed the different dimensions of partnering, from personal attitudes to formal arrangements, that can make or break a PPP’s ability to really tackle systemic change. The Rabobank-WWF case was used to explore the reality of ‘partnering for transformation’

Resources:

Insight Series 01: Public-Private Partnerships, A Brief Introduction
Public-Private Partnerships: a Brief Introduction gives an overview of the definitions, purposes, and rationales for PPPs and PPPLab’s Knowledge Agenda. It covers: 1. The Origin of Public-Private Partnerships; 2. Defining Public-Private Partnerships; 3. Types of Partnerships; 4. Purposes of Combining Public and Private Resources; 5. Complementarity: Combining Comparative Advantages; 6. Shared Value Creation; 7. An Emerging ‘Dutch Approach’?; 8. Knowledge Agenda 2014-2018

Insight Series 02: Building Partnerships The notion of ‘partnership’ refers to ‘a collaborative effort in which parties from different societal sectors pool resources to provide solutions to common problems’. However, a variety of structures, success factors and trade-offs of these partnerships is possible. The second installment of the PPPLab Insight Series publication offers insights in the issues and opportunities surrounding partnership: 1. Partnership Phases of PPPs, 2. Critical Success Factors 3. Mutuality in the Partnering Process, 4. Trade-offs

Insights Series 03: Partnerships for IB Development Tackling poverty and improving food and water security are complex challenges that require multiple parties across nations and sectors to work together in order to reach solutions. The private sector is an essential partner in helping to address such challenges. By involving low-income groups in their business processes, companies are seeking new ways of addressing business priorities while also hoping to offer greater value to such low-income groups. This form of cooperation is commonly referred to as inclusive business (IB).

Insight Series 04: Financing Public-Private Partnerships Funders have a wide variety of reasons to invest in PPPs: public or private background, motives to invest, return on investment needs, and techniques for allocating investments. They all have one thing in common: In order to invest, they need to understand the project and the cornerstone of a fundable PPP is a solid business case.

Insight Series 05: Partnering with the Public-P
Public–private partnerships (PPP) consist of at least one public and one private actor. The private actor may be a for-profit organization, such as a business, but can also be a nonprofit organization. In this publication, we focus on understanding the first ‘P’: the public partner.

Insight Series 06: Scaling through PPPs
Scaling up, scaling out, scaling in, deep or down: the term ‘scaling’ is increasingly popular in international development efforts, especially in light of the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This booklet supports practitioners – whether they work in businesses, governments, NGOs, finance, or knowledge institutes – to consciously reflect on and develop realistic and rich scaling approaches for PPPs and other programs. 
Related:
The NGO Capability Scan for Inclusive Agribusiness

The tool was developed by BoP Innovation centre in collaboration with PPP Lab. It supports the assessment of the NGO with respect to its internal capacity to induce and support inclusive agribusiness initiatives in developing countries, in cooperation with private sector partners.

It defines “Inclusive Agri Business initiatives” as projects that have the following characteristics:

• Durable: promotes long-term, stable trading relationships;
• Equitable: increases market access for smallholders with an equitable balance of risk, responsibilities and benefits and/or increases access to affordable food products for low-income consumers
• Effective: strengthens purchaser access to consistent supplies based on viable business models
• Adaptable: enables flexibility to respond to changing market, social and environmental conditions in low income economies;
• Credible: offers real benefits to all private sector parties involved, in the form of stable commercial relations that can be tracked and reported on.
• Market- based: supports fully commercial business models to flourish in low income markets to guarantee financial sustainability.