Private partnerships: Catalysts for sustainable change

Companies create added value and jobs. They are indispensable to enable and accelerate development. Therefore, Enabel works with governments in partner countries to improve the business environment and create an enabling environment for business. By supporting the private sector and the business ecosystem, entrepreneurs are more likely to make a success of their business activity.

Yet, Enabel also focuses on the Belgian, European and international private sector as a supplier of resources and know-how, through win-win partnerships. The agency aims to encourage the business community to invest in valuable and targeted partnerships, where both commercial and development outcomes are important.

There are multiple ways to involve the business community in international cooperation projects. Enabel and companies each play their own role in this, along with any other partners1 in a Team Belgium approach.

More and more small, medium-sized and large companies are making sustainability a breaking point. Not primarily to capture a larger market share, but rather to safeguard the company’s long-term credibility. Because they are aware that they play a role in the sustainable development of society.

Enabel as enabler, the companies as investors

Firstly, Enabel can play a pivotal role in enhancing private sector engagement in partner countries by contributing to the improvement of an ecosystem where business and development goals can align for mutual benefit. Whereas the private sector itself, and other actors within Team Belgium, can engage in direct financial transactions with the private sector (e.g. taking equity stakes, providing debt or guarantees), Enabel can implement complementary activities.

For instance, Enabel can strengthen local partners in the agri-food value chains to improve their operations and bring them up to required international standards. Enabel can facilitate an enabling environment for international buyers, suppliers and investors, by improving local distribution systems to facilitate certain imports, or optimise supply chains to facilitate exports. Enabel can also tackle local labour shortages by implementing opportunity-driven training-programmes, enhancing local skills development and other vocational education and training activities to support private sector engagements. These collaborations are also possible in the framework of the EU Global Gateway initiative.

Puratos

In Côte d’Ivoire, Enabel partners up with Puratos, a Belgian supplier of industrial bakery products. In an EU-funded project, Enabel supports cocoa growers and cooperatives to increase their fermentation and drying capacities. Puratos invests on top of the initially planned project activities in cacao transformation units and training to multiply the impact and increase revenues. These are then redistributed to improve the living conditions of the cocoa farmers. Enabel provides advisory support in marketing, finance and governance, and facilitates fairtrade certification to comply with EU deforestation regulations, ensuring the purchase and import of cocoa from these fermentation centres is in line with EU rules.

“We are proud of our partnership with Enabel and our network of cooperatives to further expand our sustainable Cocoa Trace programme in Côte d’Ivoire. This quality-oriented approach creates added value not only for farmers, but also for our customers. The expertise of Enabel’s local team is indispensable here.” – Raphael Audoin-Rouzeau, Global Cacao Trace programme manager, Puratos

Waterleau

The Project for Entrepreneurial Mobility (PEM-WECCO), funded by the EU and implemented by Enabel, aimed to promote economic mobility between Belgium and Senegal. Through PEM-WECCO, Belgian water technology company Waterleau signed a partnership with Senegal’s Wasser Aram to equip a water treatment plant in the town of Thiès.

Unbox

In Burundi, Unbox has launched a pilot project for cashless digital transactions in partnership with Enabel. The aim is to provide local environmentally conscious businesses with secure, seamless and scalable financial solutions, improve their economic resilience and increase financial transparency.

Sourcing innovation through calls for proposals

Enabel is keen to find innovative ideas to tackle problems related to very diverse challenges, ranging from climate change, human mobility and urbanisation, including peace and security, and social and economic inequality. Enabel can provide (partly repayable) grants which incentivise companies to innovate, share knowledge and R&D, and invest in development-focused initiatives. By sourcing the expertise and the knowhow of the private sector through calls for proposals to present solutions and adapt these to the local context, it may be possible to leapfrog traditional stages of development and adopt advanced technologies or innovative approaches directly.

IKIC.cool

In collaboration with the NIDO innovation lab of Belgium’s Federal Public Service Policy and Support (BOSA), Enabel launched a call for innovative ideas to support the dairy sector in Niger and Mali in terms of hygiene and quality standards and to strengthen the cold chain. A jury selected the experimental proposal from IKIC.cool, a Leuven-based startup which uses a so-called impact licence* for a cooling technology developed by Colruyt to keep milk cooler for longer during transport from farm to storage.

“Thanks to Enabel and the NIDO innovation lab, IKIC Impact Ventures succeeded in setting up a qualitative pilot project in Niger to demonstrate our innovative cold-chain technology for milk collection to small-scale livestock farmers and their federation. For a Belgian startup like IKIC, this creative and flexible partnership with Enabel is essential in our product strategy and market exploration.” – William Leclef, Partnership Lead – West Africa, IKIC

Leveraging corporate philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility

Enabel can also receive funding through corporate philanthropy or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. These donations can support both existing and new projects. Private companies can allocate funds to Enabel for initiatives that match their CSR goals. By integrating these CSR activities into their main business operations, Enabel and private companies create a sustainable and mutually beneficial relationship between cooperation projects and business interests.

The Gates Foundation funds Enabel to implement a project aimed at reducing the malaria burden in Africa. Currently active in Burundi and Niger, this project focuses on enhancing healthcare centres, scaling up effective tools, improving disease surveillance, and advancing data-driven decision-making for malaria control.

*www.impactlicensing.org