Small agribusiness development

Local economic growth through Private Sector Development

Private sector development and private sector job creation are at the heart of local economic development. In the MSM vision on local economic development, economic growth depends on both the capacities of the private sector and on creating an eco-system that supports private sector development.

The Private Sector Development programme consists of two blocks of one week each and dives into these two aspects of private sector development. During the first week the focus is on Small & Medium Size (SME) Business Development in Emerging Economies. This program gives a general introduction to small business development in emerging markets in relation to the enabling environment and agricultural markets. The second week focus more specifically on Building Triple Helix Partnerships as and eco-system for local economic development. 

Small Business Development in Emerging Economies
In the first week the focus is on the role of the indigenous, local private sector in the development process of emerging economies and in particularly the agricultural sector. In emerging markets, the private sector consists for more than 98% out of Small but Growing Businesses (SGB’s), also referred to as Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME’s), that operate to a large extent in the informal sector. This is one of the reasons why we know relatively little about them. Yet, MSME’s are the key players in local economic development. What factors have led to their growth and what factors have held them back? To what extent do local MSME’s adhere to ESG (economic, social and governance) standards? This course will touch upon the most important topics related to development of the private sector and provide ample ground for debate and reflection.

Building Triple Helix Partnerships
Innovation is at the heart of economic development. Innovation is expensive and many businesses - especially small businesses - cannot afford R&D units. Government mainly seek to drive innovation through funding research in universities and hope that research outcomes maybe relevant to industry and address development challenges. Companies also have R&D and strategy units to drive innovation. However this is inefficient, Universities may pursue a research agenda that is not relevant to industry. Industry driven research maybe too narrow to help drive overall economic transformation. A win-win situation is possible if the government, university and industry collaborate in terms of developing research agenda and pooling resources and thus hastening pace and relevance of innovation. This is the so-called Triple Helix Model.