D. Unidad de Recursos Humanos
3. Objetivos de la administración de Recursos Humanos
In September 2004, UNIDO and UNDP concluded an agreement to develop joint programmes of technical cooperation in the area of private sector development, with a key aim to implement the recommendations of the UN Commission on Private Sector and Development. Although still in its early stages, this UNIDO-UNDP Initiative on Private Sector Development offers an interesting model for how agencies within the UN system can potentially leverage their core competencies and synergies, minimize duplication of resources and effort, provide a common voice on the importance of private sector development through global forums, workshops and research projects, and develop new models of joint field representation at the country level.
The initiative focused on implementing the Commission’s recommendations in the following key areas, with an initial focus on 12 pilot countries: Afghanistan, Burundi, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Jordan, Laos, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania, :38
• Identify clear roles in private sector development for government, civil society, the business community and development agencies;
• Fully mobilize domestic entrepreneurial capacities in developing countries by improving the enabling environment, enhancing access to finance and strengthening the knowledge and skill base;
• Reduce economic informality by stimulating the move of entrepreneurs into the formal economy;
• Develop sustainable markets and new business models for poor population segments (the so-called ‘base-of-the-pyramid’ markets);
• Effectively link domestic small and medium-sized entrepreneurs with foreign investors and large domestic companies by integrating them into broader value chains; and
• Promote public-private partnerships and responsible business practices. The process of developing these country-level joint programmes has been varied, with more rapid progress being achieved in some countries than in others owing to divergent local conditions and varying levels of donor interest. In overall terms, however, a joint assessment of the programme undertaken by the two organisations in mid-2006, two years after its launch, indicated that its implementation should be sustained for the full five-year period as originally envisaged. In addition, the assessment recommended that the programme of cooperation should be expanded beyond private-sector development to other substantive areas, such as energy and environment, that had been provided for in the cooperation agreement but not yet pursued.
Within UNIDO itself an ongoing process is underway to develop ‘Integrated Programmes’ in close consultation and cooperation with its partner governments that shift the agency’s operational modality from, “…a portfolio of individual projects to integrated packages of mutually supportive service modules designed to help overcome the critical industrial development problems of a country at the national level or those of a particular geographic area within a country.”39 In
addition to a commitment to align these Integrated Programmes with partner government’s own planning processes and timetables, UNIDO is also working with other donors, NGOs and business associations in selected countries to ensure greater coordination in its programming efforts. These Integrated Programmes of cooperation are under implementation in some 50 countries, of which about 15 are in their second phase.
Figure 10 illustrates the three core objectives defined by UNIDO and Viet Nam’s policymakers in the 2003 – 2005 Viet Nam Integrated Programme: the economic objective to enhance the delivery of resources to SMEs by developing the institutional and policy support for SME development; the socio-economic objective to generate incomes and employment in rural areas through the advancement of women’s entrepreneurship in rural industries; and the environmental objective to mitigate adverse impacts of rapid industrialisation on the ecosystem through the promotion of cleaner production in manufacturing activities.40
FIGURE 10: UNIDO’S INTEGRATED PROGRAMME OF COOPERATION WITH VIET NAM
(2003-2005)
In summary, there are a number of encouraging initiatives underway where donors are achieving more coordinated approaches to private sector development, both between donor agencies, within donor agencies, and between donors and their partner governments. A growing number of these efforts also have an explicit focus on engaging directly with domestic and foreign companies and business associations with objectives ranging from improved policy dialogue and consultation, to joint mobilisation of financial and technical resources, to the creation of commercially viable business linkages between large and small firms. Surprisingly, such proactive and explicit engagement with the private sector has not always been a feature of donor-funded private sector development projects in the past.
While pitfalls exist, most notably the need to balance development objectives of the donors with commercial objectives of companies, there is great potential for increased public-private cooperation in the area of responsible and sustainable enterprise development. Some of these emerging alliances are profiled in Part V. In all cases, however, no matter how responsive and responsible the private sector is, good governance, effective public institutions, and sound public policy measures by governments will remain absolutely essential in ensuring pro-poor economic growth and enterprise development.
Environmentally sustainable industrial development TECH NOLO GY &EN VIRO NM ENT HUM AN CA PIT AL & COM M UN ITIE S PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS Rural industry development Enterprise development SME promotion
Source: Integrated programme of cooperation between the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and UNIDO 2003-2205, Annual Report 2004
SUMMARY OF PART IV:
THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC POLICY MEASURES
Developing country and donor governments share a fundamental leadership role in creating the conditions to foster small enterprise, promote economic growth and reduce poverty. In the absence of good governance, underpinned by effective public policies and institutions, there is little that even the largest and most responsible companies can contribute to sustained economic growth and pro-poor development. The role of government is especially important in the following areas:
1. Creating an enabling framework for private sector development in general
Supporting a sound investment climate, addressing both macro-stability and micro-economic and regulatory impediments to the mobilisation of domestic capital and the attraction and retention of foreign capital, and investing in physical, social and institutional infrastructure. Research by the World Bank and others demonstrates that small enterprises are often more adversely affected by constraints in the enabling framework than larger companies and so efforts to improve the overall investment climate will tend to especially benefit small enterprises.
2. Supporting small enterprise development
Ensuring that framework conditions, consultation structures and delivery mechanisms for finance and business development services enable rather than exclude small enterprises, helping informal enterprises move into the formal economy and high-potential entrepreneurs upgrade into broader value chains. Efforts are needed to ensure that targeted interventions to support small enterprise development are demand-driven and market-oriented and do not ‘crowd-out’ existing or potential commercial service providers or distort markets, but at the same time recognize where ‘blended value’ or public-private partnership approaches are needed. One area where governments can play an important role is improving the enabling environment and supporting enterprise development among vulnerable and marginalized groups such as women, indigenous peoples’, ethnic and religious minorities, small-scale farmers, artisanal miners, and youth – and especially those living in rural areas, which are home to some 75 per cent of the people living on less than $1 a day.
3. Fostering responsible business practices
Implementing the necessary policies, regulations, funding mechanisms, market incentives, training, and standardisation and certification programmes to either require or encourage the adoption of sound labour and human rights standards, environmental practices and anti-corruption measures – in small enterprises as well as large companies. Governments can help to ensure more responsible business practices among small enterprises as well as major corporations by using a variety of public policy measures, instruments and tools. Four key government roles in strengthening responsible business practices, identified by the World Bank, are: mandating; facilitating; partnering; and endorsing.
4. Improving aid effectiveness
Improving the effectiveness of bilateral and multilateral aid through increasing national ownership; aligning aid more closely with national development strategies, institutions and procedures; improving harmonisation between donor agencies; managing for results; and ensuring greater mutual accountability for development results. In the area of private sector development, and small enterprise development specifically, a variety of encouraging initiatives are underway aimed at improving coordination between donor agencies, within donor agencies and between donors and partner governments. A growing number of these include an explicit commitment on the part of donors and/or governments to engage more proactively with the private sector.