*EPF414 10/09/2003
Byliner: Multinational Companies Use Partnerships to Help Developing Nations
(Companies work with NGOs to develop programs) (1590)

The Bush Administration believes that partnerships between donor and developing countries, international agencies, non-governmental organizations, businesses, and other stakeholders must be a critical component of a global strategy for countries seeking to fight poverty and provide economic opportunities for all their people. The United States remains and will continue to be the largest bilateral donor to the developing world.

Once enacted, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) will increase U.S. core official development assistance by 50 percent over three years, to a total of $15,000 million annually starting in fiscal year 2006. MCA is predicated on the importance of partnerships in leveraging resources for development, since the development record of the past few decades shows that enduring growth and prosperity are built less on official development assistance than on open markets, increased trade, sustainable budget policies, and strong support for individual entrepreneurship.

Governments and civil society need to work cooperatively to allow the private sector to act as the engine of growth and job creation. A variety of private sources -- non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private voluntary organizations, foundations, corporations, the higher education community, and even individuals, many through remittances -- now account for 80 percent of total capital flows to developing countries. A U.S. Commerce Department study two years ago showed that, since the 1960s, private capital flows to these countries jumped from $15,000 million to $326,000 million annually.

In country after country, there are many examples of how new alliances -- and the leveraging of private sector and other non-governmental resources -- are forging a better future for families and communities. The article that follows serves as a brief guide to how public-private partnerships are formed, the basis for their success, and how countries that wish to benefit from partnerships can best form and sustain them.

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BUSINESS AND PARTNERSHIPS
By Christoher Conte

(Christopher Conte is a freelance writer based in the Washington, D.C., area.)

Since 2001, Pfizer, Inc., the multinational pharmaceutical company based in New York, has donated millions of free doses of its antifungal medicine Diflucan to treat AIDS victims in South Africa. But the job isn't as easy as shipping the drug across the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, it's much bigger than Pfizer can handle on its own.

Pfizer has worked with government ministries of health in South Africa and other countries to make sure the medicine is distributed and used properly. It has teamed up with the International Association for Physicians in Aids Care (IAPAC), which designed materials to teach medical workers how to diagnose and treat the infections that Diflucan can attack. It has partnered with Interchurch Medical Assistance, a faith-based nongovernmental organization, to distribute the drug, and it is working with other groups to develop training programs to help pharmacists learn how to handle large inventories of the medicine. What's more, recognizing the continuing need for permanent improvements in Africa's health systems, it has joined with a group of nongovernment organizations and private companies to establish a state-of-the-art AIDS clinic and training center at Makerere University in Uganda.

"You can't just drop the drug at the dock," says Atiya Ali, a senior program associate at Pfizer. Reviewing Pfizer's many partnerships, she adds: "We know we don't have all the answers, and we can't do it all ourselves."

Like Pfizer, a growing number of multinational companies are finding that being actors in the global economy means more than just doing business as usual in new and far-flung locations. It means helping developing countries create the infrastructure of modern societies. And that ambitious goal, in turn, means finding partners who can help. But it isn't just a question of charity: a growing number of companies see participation in development partnerships as a key element in their long-term business strategies -- keys to winning consumer support, acceptance by citizens, shareholder satisfaction and, in many cases, the loyalty of employees. "The starting point for companies that are really enlightened and committed is that business cannot succeed in societies that fail," explains Don Mohanlal, executive vice president for the International Youth Foundation, a Baltimore-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that helps a number of prominent corporations shape programs designed to help youth in more than 60 countries.

Partnerships with NGOs bring companies a number of tangible benefits. Since many NGOs serve as watchdogs, companies that work directly with them are better able to anticipate or resolve problems that could tarnish their reputations. What's more, having a working relationship with respected NGOs helps build companies' reputations as responsible corporate citizens -- an advantage that can help with everything from gaining political clearance to opening branches in new countries to increasing sales. NGO partners also can give companies invaluable access to information about the cultures, laws and political conditions in countries where they hope to build markets and develop a trained workforce to meet their manpower needs.

Partnerships with governments also bring powerful advantages to companies. They help ensure that political leaders become -- and stay -- involved in addressing social problems. They win political support that may help companies gain entry to markets and ensure friendly regulatory policies. And, the World Bank has noted, partnerships enable companies to concentrate on the community-development activities where they have the greatest expertise, such as clearing supplies through customs, creating jobs and business opportunities for related companies, lending heavy equipment, and providing skilled staff who can help teach modern business and management skills to foreign NGOs and businesses.

As the advantages of forming partnerships become increasingly clear, businesses and consultants have developed a considerable body of knowledge about how businesses can best form and sustain partnerships. Among the suggestions of experts and those with experience in the field are the following:

-- Seek partnerships that emphasize your core values and advance your business objectives.

"Corporate philanthropy has become more strategic, now being tied more closely with business objectives and competitiveness," notes the Center for Corporate Citizenship, a think-tank affiliated with Boston College. Hewlett-Packard illustrates the center's point. It has joined with three non-government organizations in Brazil to establish classrooms equipped with advanced computer hardware, where students learn information technology skills. The "Digital Garage" project, as it is known, will help Brazil move into the information age -- a development that will help create a growing market for the company's products while helping produce the kind of technologically sophisticated workers Hewlett Packard will need to thrive in the South American country.

In general, the Center for Corporate Citizenship urges companies to treat "cause branding" -- efforts to link themselves in the public eye to specific social causes -- like any other strategic business investment. "Successful programs first identify an internal champion," the center says. "This leadership from the top then drives the business process and brings together a range of critical department resources: philanthropy, government relations, marketing, human resources, credit, finance, local business units. Executives must take a purposeful approach to program development, maintenance and continuous improvement."

-- Pick partners as carefully as you would select business partners.

"An assessment of agendas, skills, weaknesses and culture is essential to anticipating opportunities and pitfalls," contends the World Bank. Fortunately, that job is getting easier. As partnerships have become more common, a number of NGOs have adopted business-like styles of operation, making them more compatible partners for private companies. The International Youth Foundation (IYF), which develops and runs customized, branded education and training programs aimed at youth for clients such as Nokia, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, Lucent Technologies and Unocal, aggressively markets itself as an effective way to "outsource" companies' corporate responsibility agendas.

IYF boasts that it gives companies everything they need to contribute to development efforts: it can connect them with a global network of leading foundations and organizations, provide in-depth knowledge of proven programs and trends in more than 60 countries, ensure that corporate philanthropic funds are spent according to donors' guidelines, and work with companies to develop tools to measure whether programs achieve their goals. "Partnership work is an unsurpassed vehicle for doing business," says Don Mohanlal, the group's executive vice president.

-- Don't forget your employees.

One of the main advantages of participating in a development partnership is that it increases employee loyalty and reduces turnover. A 1996 study by the Council on Foundations showed that employees involved in their company's community activities were 30 percent more likely to want to continue working for the company and help it succeed. On top of the other advantages of partnerships, then, giving employees an opportunity to participate in a company's philanthropic activities -- by volunteering to provide training in a developing country, for instance -- may be one of the best human relations moves a company can make in a global economy.

Resources

Business for Social Responsibility, a San Francisco-based organization, provides information, tools, training and advisory services, with the aim of making social responsibility "an integral part of business operations and strategies." The nonprofit includes a number of comprehensive issue papers on its Web site (http://www.bsr.org/).

The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College provides executive education, organizes a wide range of meetings and workshops, conducts practical research and offers consulting services. Its Web site includes an electronic newsletter, along with other resources (http://www.bc.edu/centers/ccc/index.html).

The World Bank's Business Partners for Development Initiative published "Putting Partnering to Work," which includes a set of recommendations for businesses (http://www.bpdweb.org/products.htm).

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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