On April 15th, we had a lively discussion on public-private partnerships with Robert Schneider, Senior Alliance Advisor, in the Office of Development Partnerships, Private Sector Alliances Division at USAID. Rob is the ICT partnerships lead for ODP/PSA, or as many may recognize better, the Global Development Alliances (GDA) office

Do note that while Rob Schneider presented at the meeting, these notes are not his statements or the position of USAID - this is my impression of the cumulative input of all twenty-five Technology Salon participants.

Evolution of Partnerships

Public-private partnerships, of which GDA's and PSA's are a subset, have moved from what was once more of a corporate social responsibility activity to assuage international critics, to become a key competitive business advantage for companies that may also improve relations with host country governments and the local communities in which they operate.

"Avoiding Nigeria" has also become a common refrain, as companies want to make sure the communities in which they operate see them as net benefactors, not as pure extractors.

"Picking Winners"

Good partnerships do not distort local markets; they drive increases in market size and new market penetration where there isn't currently a market to begin with. To take agricultural inputs as an example, when a donor subsidizes business loans for an innovative, first-mover company expansion or guarantees borrower payback of inputs, the donor is helping private enterprise realize the market potential in a risky market. The company, now understanding the risks and returns, can price accordingly, which over time helps other companies do the same - leading to competition, not monopolies.

Incorporating Small Companies

Often, we only hear of partnerships with Fortune 500-type companies and there can be the impression that alliances overlook small American companies and local country firms. To an extent this is true, but mainly because big firms have the capacity to invest the staff time and resources in building partnerships, and the resulting activities have outsize impact - changing Wal*Marts purchasing habits impacts the global retail market.

However,,USAID Missions are encouraged to have close relationships with local companies and many form partnerships with firms at the district and national levels..

Measurement & Evaluation

Funding for measurement and evaluation has been on the decline for years, which makes any level of assessment difficult. In addition, contracting mechanisms discourage long-term review of projects - expenses are not allowed after the contract period, which can be much too soon to see big impacts.

Even when evaluations are performed, they risk being suppressed. Politically, bad news is not encouraged by either public or private organizations, and private companies seeking to sustain a competitive advantage over rivals do not always welcome the publicity of good news.

Yet, social networking technologies like Facebook and Twitter, could allow greater beneficiary participation in evaluations without a large increase in resources.

Strategies for Success

Successful alliances usually are multi-party partnerships - several entities coming together to achieve common goals. This may be daunting at the onset, but by having several participants, partnerships have greater resources and can better survive the defection of a participant.

Concentrating efforts in countries with USAID missions that encourage public-private partnerships and are already bought-in to the benefits that alliances can bring is one way to increase the likelihood of success. However, not every Mission is focused on building alliances at the moment, so implementing partners should assess both mission and private sector appetite for partnership before spending a lot of time creating a partnership.

In addition, implementing partners should seek idea buy-in from all stakeholders - from private industry to USAID to local organizations - before they create a project or seek resources for it. This is key as staff turnover can derail projects if there isn't deep organizational commitment.

Other Impressions

For more participant impressions of the event, please check out PPPs and Sustainability by Matt Vanderwerff of IREX.

On April 8th, Inveneo was pleased to host approximately 20 experts in technology and development for a Technology Salon held at mission*social, a collaborative workspace for social enterprises.

The event was billed as a conversation about the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Haiti earthquake response, but the conversation focused on a wide range of opportunities and constraints facing the use of ICTs in responding to disasters, wherever they occur.

(We're now bi-coastal! To join the next San Francisco Salon, get invited here.)

The event featured presentations from three ICT and medical professionals with direct experience leveraging ICTs to support disaster response followed by open and free-ranging discussion.

Download Mark's presentation

Mark Summer of Inveneo

To kick us off, Mark Summer (CIO of Inveneo) presented on Inveneo's WiFi networking efforts in post-quake Haiti working primarily with the NetHope alliance. This network provided broadband connectivity to NetHope member organizations - and a few others as well - in the crucial weeks following the quake, when local ISPs were not functioning effectively.

Mark emphasized the value of reliable, low-cost networking technologies, the need for better pre-planning and the importance of building local capacity.

Download Eric's presentation

Eric Rasumussen of InSTEDD

Eric Rasumussen, CEO of InSTEDD, then described a wide range of initiatives in which he and his team were involved in Haiti, including work to facilitate and curate the flow of communications from victims and the public (much of it via SMS) and to feed this information back to first responders.

Eric focused on the importance of tight coordination among responding organizations, that these organizations must be self sufficient in the operating area, and the need for regulatory and policy reforms to enable.

Dr. Kumar Menon of Amrita University

Dr Kumar, of Amrita University, joined via Skype from India to describe in brief his organization's efforts to provide web-enabled critical care capacity in the wake of floods and the 2004 Tsunami. Dr. Kumar focused his comments on the need for reliable broadband connectivity in order to support medical aid via telemedicine during disasters.

There was good debate on several issues, but the following points got a lot of nods from participants:

• There is a general need for more collaboration around an integrated framework for the use of multiple channels of information during disasters
• Organizations involved in ICT response must be entirely self sufficient on the ground (bring 1khz Honda generators!!)
• Development and effectiveness of systems will require a hospitable policy environment (e.g., free SMS during declared disasters, liberalize use of radio spectrum, etc.)
• Better ICT pre-planning is needed (caches of networking equipment, sharing of information resources - ie, mapping data - within local setting, localized caching of Internet content, etc.)
• There must be an appropriate balance between reliance on Internet/cloud and localized content/resources
• Public education about use of alternative communications channels during an emergency will make response more effective

What other ICT lessons learned are there from Haiti?