BACKGROUND AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The role of the private sector as the driver of economic
growth has perhaps been neglected by donors, who have tended to
focus on securing poverty reduction through aid to social sectors.
More recently, Private Sector Development has been given a higher
profile on donor agency agendas, including DFID's. The Committee,
therefore, decided to conduct an inquiry into the role of the
private sector, and specifically the role that donors can play,
in encouraging PSD. We received written memoranda from more than
50 individuals and organisations, including companies, Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs), academic institutions, consultancies, co-operatives,
business forums, public private partnerships, UN agencies and
other multilateral organisations, as well as from individuals.
We held eight evidence sessions at Westminster between February
and May 2006.
We are grateful to all those who submitted evidence,
and those who assisted us in other ways. We would like to thank
especially the following individuals and organisations who gave
oral evidence: the Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary of State for
International Development; Sharon White, Director of Policy Division,
DFID; William Kingsmill, Head, Growth and Investment Group, DFID;
Gavin McGillivray, Head, International Financial Institutions
Department, DFID; Richard Boulter, Head of Profession, Enterprise
Development, DFID; Tony Venables, Chief Economist, DFID; Richard
Laing, CEO, CDC Group; Robert Annibale, Global Director, Citigroup
Microfinance Group; Professor Adrian Wood, University of Oxford;
Sunil Sinha, Director, Emerging Market Economics; Joe Matome,
Company Secretary, Debswana Diamond Company; Jay Naidoo, Chairman,
Development Bank of Southern Africa; Peter Cameron, Fellow, Institution
of Civil Engineers (ICE) and Chairman of ICE's Appropriate Development
Panel; Petter Matthews, Executive Director, Engineers Against
Poverty; Lord Brett, Director, International Labour Organisation
(ILO) London; Dan Rees, Director, Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI);
Albert Tucker, independent consultant and former Director of Twin
Trading; Michael Pragnell, Chief Executive, Syngenta; Dr Andrew
Bennett, Executive Director, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable
Agriculture; Professor Keith Palmer, Chairman of Emerging Africa
Infrastructure Fund and of Infraco, Non-Executive Director of
Guarantco; Bob Fitch, Project Director, Financial Deepening Challenge
Fund, Enterplan; Ann Grant, Vice-Chair, Standard Chartered Capital
Markets Ltd; Sue Clark, Director of Corporate Affairs, SABMiller,
former Chair of Business Action for Africa; Walter Gibson, Head
of Global Health through Hygiene Programme, Unilever; Andrew Hollas,
Head, Africa Markets, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Stirling Smith,
Co-operative College; Sumi Dhanarajan, Head of Private Sector
Team, Oxfam; Dominic Eagleton, Policy Officer, ActionAid and Dr
Claire Melamed, Trade and Private Sector Policy Manager, Christian
Aid.
We are particularly grateful to those organisations
and individuals from developing countries, and/or with close links
to developing countries, who took the time to engage with the
inquiry. We greatly value their input and look forward to more
input from developing countries in future inquiries.
We would like to thank our Specialist Advisers, Zahid
Torres-Rahman, Director, Inspiris Limited and Dr. William Kalema,
Board Chairman of the Development Finance Company of Uganda and
member of the Commission for Africa. We would also like to thank
all those who took part in informal discussions with the Committee,
including Jim Tanburn, consultant and Coordinator of the Donor
Committee for Enterprise Development, Michael Klein, Vice President
for Private Sector Development, World Bank and the International
Finance Corporation and Hernando de Soto, Institute for Liberty
and Democracy, Peru.
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