World Bank Fragility Forum – From Private-Sector to Policy: Sustainable Business Leadership in the Sahel

The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) hosted a session at the World Bank Fragility Forum on March 11 at 11:30 am ET titled “From Private-Sector to Policy: Sustainable Business Leadership in the Sahel.” The Fragility Forum brought together policymakers and practitioners from the humanitarian, development, peace, and security communities; public and private sector; academia; and civil society to explore how the international community can best support countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence to foster peace and stability.

This session presented an opportunity to discuss the steps that the private sector is taking to reduce insecurity and support economic recovery in the region with a diverse range of Sahelian business leaders. It was also an opportunity to share a report compiling recommendations from regional private sector leaders to support the economic recovery in the Sahel and share the process of growing the Coalition to be a recognized stakeholder at the G5 Sahel level. The session invited participating colleagues to share their experiences working with the private sector in fragile contexts to support cross-regional learning.

The original event invitation information is below:

Private sector inclusion in fragile contexts is widely recognized as a way to support investment and economic recovery, but often the civic infrastructure for sustained business leadership and policy engagement struggles to be sustainable. In the countries of the G5 Sahel, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, national private sector leaders are adopting new tools and approaches to sustainably link private-sector voices into the policymaking process with support from the Sahel Business Coalition (La Coalition Économique du Sahel pour le Partinariat Inclusif).

From research, through policy advocacy, and partnership development, the foundational work of the Sahel Business Coalition has focused on understanding the relationship between private sector development and insecurity in the Sahel, developing recommendations for economic reform to support resilience, and supporting the inclusion of businesswomen and young entrepreneurs in policy discussions. The Coalition has initiated a paradigm shift away from the idea that the Sahelian regional security agenda is the sole responsibility of the public sector and armed forces, towards greater ownership of the regional security agenda across society. As a result of creating the business coalition, the Sahelian private sector is increasingly seen as an ally in combatting regional insecurity.