Engaging the private sector in post-conflict recovery: perspectives for SADPA

Should the South African Development Partnership Agency support private-sector engagement in fragile and post-conflict African settings? This paper weighs up the risks against the merits.

Economic revitalisation and job creation are major components of the effort to consolidate sustainable peace in post-conflict settings. Public institutions tend to lead efforts to stimulate recovery. Yet the private sector has a role to play too, as post-conflict revitalisation and reconstruction offer commercial opportunities. There is a growing trend among donors and governments towards engaging business to meet development goals. At the same time, South Africa is looking to coordinate its various development cooperation activities through the South African Development Partnership Agency (SADPA). This makes it relevant to examine whether, and how, SADPA might support private-sector development and engagement in fragile and post-conflict African settings.

About the author

Dr Jolyon Ford is an associate of the Global Economic Governance programme, University of Oxford, and an associate fellow at the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House). He has been a senior research consultant to the Institute for Security Studies since 2008. He is the author of Regulating Business for Peace (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming) and the blog ‘Private Sector – Public World’. Before 2014 he led the Africa work of Oxford Analytica, the global strategic analysis firm. From Zimbabwe, he was educated at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Cambridge University and the Australian National University.