Public Private Partnerships Slashing Global Poverty

Aid and development agency TEAR Fund hosted the first public, private partnership event of its kind with Kiwi businesses and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attending to discuss new methods of addressing poverty.

Attendees at the event spoke about their involvement in development programmes funded in part by the government’s “New Zealand Partnerships for International Development Fund.”

The Partnerships Fund is a contestable fund open to New Zealand organsations from the charitable, private and state sectors, along with their in-country partners, to support sustainable development in third-world countries.

TEAR Fund’s Public Private Partnership Advisor Richard Barter said “The breakfast meeting was the first of its kind. It is a milestone showcasing new types of partnerships between the international development, private and public sectors who filled gaps that could not be met by local developing country organisations. With tight fiscal controls and clearly measureable outcomes in place, TEAR Fund’s business partners have added significant value to its programmes.”

Mechanical engineers, an entomologist, a supply chain improvement specialist and a youth and community worker talked about their experiences working in partnership with TEAR Fund in Sri Lanka, India, Mongolia and the Pacific.

Programmes described included: helping refugees from the civil war in Sri Lanka improve their dairy businesses, vegetable growing amongst Mongolian herdsmen, water management in the arid deserts of Rajasthan and youth educational and economic development in the Pacific.

All the presenters spoke of new opportunities they gained from the partnerships and the importance of having a good understanding of the local context.

ENDS

© Scoop Media