- The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) participated in the Crans Montana Forum Africa 2022, which the Swiss Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) organized from 29 June to 2 July 2022 in Brussels.
"Public-private partnerships are of utmost importance to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to allow for closer cooperation on the ground", said Patrick Gilabert, UNIDO Representative in Brussels. "A good public-private partnership example is the UNIDO Programme for Country Partnership (PCP) as it also leverages capacities from international financial institutions (IFIs) and the private sector. Currently, the Organization operates several PCPs, including in Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco and Senegal".
After the panel 'Developing Public-Private Partnerships in Africa', which was co-moderated by Ambassador David Doyle and General Delegate Marc Teyssier D'orfeuil of Club PPP Medafrique, bilateral meetings with Ambassador Carteron, founder and chairman of the Crans Montana Forum; Soares Sambú, Vice-Prime Minister of the Republic of Guinea Bissau; Ambassador David Doyle; Ambassador Jestas Nyamanga, Republic of Tanzania; Ambassador Léon Raphael Mokoko, Republic of the Congo; and Hamza Ghazi, Moroccan Agency for Investment and Export Development (AMDIE); focused inter alia on agro-food development, increasing government-involvement in public-private partnerships, and risk mitigation.
Titled 'The World at the Time of African Economic Sovereignty', this year's forum was attended by over 300 participants, including former Heads of State, Ambassadors, European Commissioners, and CEOs. Overall, the forum highlighted the opportunity to use the previously built-up resilience to transform and change the current challenges faced by the different regions of Africa. The programme also addressed the financial aspect of development aid; the situation in the Sahel region; security aspects; energy provision and electrification in Africa; health care access; gender; and agro-food growth needed to counter the projected famine in the Horn of Africa.
