Sagacity is a virtue

The flip side of the "Aidscape" (Public Private Partnership (PPP), USAID) (applications in a developing country):

What can a PPP model in a developed country like the US have common with the same model in a developing nation like India? Plenty! In fact if observed closely, they make two sides of the same coin.
After having created a stir by his announcement in Oct last year Mr. Raj Shah, Administrator USAID has revealed two sea change insights; first involves a surge of new actors over the past 30 years pouring resources into developing countries. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs), cooperatives, faith-based organizations, foundations, corporations, and financial institutions now transfer an enormous chunk of resources to developing countries. Official U.S. development assistance today is dwarfed by these private sector investments in emerging and developing market economies.
The second sea change is a much more recent development: a tightening fiscal environment. The ongoing budget battle looks like it may end in serious cuts to foreign assistance spending that could gravely undermine U.S. global engagement.
What repercussion will this have on the developing countries?
Consider these two scenarios:
More Cooperative Aid:
If the US government decides to involve the private players from the conceptualization to the final evaluation of the project this would result in more flexibity in terms of the aid provided to the developing countries. This shall also result in tapping the interest of the private players which is often left out otherwise in the planning process. The interests and priorities of the private players might result in more avenues for the developing countries in terms of knowledge and resources exchange.
More Flexible Aid:
The opportunities in the private sector are random and spontaneous moving swiftly as opposed to the bureaucratic arrangements in the government. The government functioning is far too rigid and complicated which in turns elongates the implementation of the policies and aid that has been planned. To incorporate on-the-fly provision for the budget shall make it appropriate for the aid to reach the targeted countries early and in a comprehensive manner.
Having said this  in order to fully capitalize on the new “aidscape”, U.S. development agencies must update their partnering mentality. This shall mean adapting to their new role as conveners of partnerships, not as leaders, and reworking the partnering process so it’s able to quickly adapt to a rapidly changing 21st century development landscape.
This shall definitely lead to the inroads of more comprehensive development in this century and for a win-win situation for the aidscape and the benefiting countries. 

 This post has been adopted from the original article by Will McKitterick in Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance, USAID Tags: Public-Private Partnerships, USAID.

To read the original article please click here.