The Future of Public-Private Partnerships
abrush — January 31, 2012 – 1:41 pmBy Andrea Brush, ACTION intern
“To go fast, go alone. To go far, go together” - African proverb
Last Friday, I had the opportunity to attend an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies titled, “PepsiCo & World Food Program: A Public-Private Partnership to Transform Nutrition across Africa.” I am very interested in this topic because I studied childhood malnutrition throughout Africa, and follow the projects of the World Food Program. I was particularly interested in how the public and private sectors can best work together to combat issues such as malnutrition, but also anything ranging from vaccine campaigns to education. The future of innovation may lie in the development of partnerships between the public and private sectors. It seems logical to think that with the varied directions the world’s economy is moving in, partnerships between publically and privately funded organizations will become commonplace.
In light of this thought, when I heard that the World Food Program and USAID were teaming up with PepsiCo, I was initially taken aback. I couldn’t understand why a monstrous, multi-billion dollar company like PepsiCo would want to work with a program that bases itself on providing food for free. I have since learned that PepsiCo has a much greater humanitarian side than previously imagined. The partnership formed between WFP, USAID, and PepsiCo aims to increase chickpea production in Ethiopia. The program is aptly called Enterprise EthioPEA. The aim of the program is to create a locally produced, ready to eat food (RUF) to assist in warding off malnutrition in close to 40,000 children. In addition, the program will help 10,000 local farmers produce better quality, and a higher quantity, of chickpeas. PepsiCo has stated that the goal of the partnership is to provide long-term sustainability to local farmers by providing them with better quality seeds and farming techniques. While the initial goal in Ethiopia is to make a nutritional, chickpea-based RUF to stop the increase of malnutrition, both PepsiCo and the WFP would like to eventually see farmers making a profit off of the chickpea production by increasing the amount of chickpeas exported globally.
To me, the most interesting aspect of this partnership is the changing face of large-scale, private companies. It takes courage for a food production company to make nutritious food cheaper, and that PepsiCo’s decision to be a part of EthioPEA may help change the direction of how the world is nourished. Rightly so, WFP’s Executive Director, Josette Sheeran stated, “With the ingenuity, power and reach of the private sector, we can make great strides in ending the malnutrition and hunger that is threatening the lives of millions…Enterprise EthioPEA will change the lives of tens of thousands of children and will chart the course for future partnerships to help stamp out hunger around the globe.”
Hopefully more private sector companies take note from PepsiCo and forge innovative partnerships with the public sector to combat things such as hunger, malnutrition, and other health-related issues.
I, personally, am very excited to see how the partnership between the WFP and PepsiCo pans out and hopefully watch the resounding success of EthioPEA. This program is positioned to change thousands of lives in Ethiopia and beyond. It would be wonderful to see the success of PepsiCo’s eagerness to be a part of a partnership with the public sector inspire other large-scale companies to do the same. These partnerships have the potential to change the course of millions of lives, in my lifetime. If private sector corporations are willing to part with large sums of money for the global good of the world, it would stand to reason that “diseases of poverty” could be easily eradicated. EthioPEA‘s fight to end childhood malnutrition is a huge step in the right direction, as well-nourished children are less likely to succumb to deadly diseases later in life. For the time being, I’ll simply continue to imagine a world in which, perhaps Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. teams up with an organization such as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to once and for all put an end to those diseases, and malnutrition while they’re at it!
