The Power of Public-Private Partnerships

The power of partnerships can often be missed because it is either not understood or not managed to its full potential. ICCO has worked in Mali for decades to maximize the potential of partnerships and is now a leader in establishing such alliances with the private sector. For the last three years, they have implemented public-private partnerships to develop the shea and beeswax value chains, co-funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Feed the Future Scaling-up Climate-Smart Agroforestry Technologies for Improved Market Access, Food, and Nutritional Security program in Mali. The project’s successes demonstrate the broad impact that these types of partnerships can accomplish and what is possible as efforts expand to the entire market system.

At the Power of Public-Private Partnerships event, RTI will build on the experience of ICCO’s work in the shea value chain by sharing proven innovative solutions from the region, including the information management and access to finance experience of the Feed the Future Senegal Nataal Mbay project. The conversation will center around how partnerships contributed to success and sustainability, and how lessons learned can be applied in shea and other agricultural value chains.  

Tania Brunn, senior manager for food security and agriculture at RTI, is a featured speaker at the ICCO event, where she will discuss ways to address challenges encountered by the shea public-private partnership and how lessons learned from other value chains can be applied in the Malian context.