USAID/Brazil supported in 2018, the first of its kind Impact Investment and Sustainable Businesses Forum in the Amazon, held in Manaus State in November 2018. Opening speech by the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Latin America and Caribbean, Mr. Steve Olive.

Photo: IDESAM/PPA

In full alignment with Agency policies to support Brazil’s self-reliance and sustainable country-led solutions, the Mission launched its Private Sector Engagement (PSE) Strategy to promote biodiversity conservation in the Amazon with a focus on developing partnerships with private sector companies. Private sector engagement contribute significantly to development results and impact, often mobilizing capital resources that surpass the investments made by international donors.

USAID has a long history of working with the private sector that intensified in 2006 with the Mais Unidos Platform of Partners, when we brought together American companies to collaborate on Corporate Social Investment (CSI) projects, to transform the education and technology sector. The 100+ companies of Mais Unidos is now a self-sustained USAID legacy platform of collective action that continues to deliver development results. This experience increased our collaboration with private sector actors over the years, which we’ve leveraged into strategic partnerships with numerous companies to strengthen forest-based value chains and community well-being with companies such as Google, Coca-Cola, Natura, AMBEV, and Mineração Rio Norte (MRN). Increasingly private sector companies seek out USAID as a development practitioner for advice and partnerships, and from this convergence, USAID launched the Partnership Platform for the Amazon (PPA), our signature convening platform today. In 2018, USAID pulled together these lessons learned and experiences to develop our Private Sector Engagement strategy.

The Partnership Platform for the Amazon (PPA), launched in 2017, is the first example in the Amazon of a convening platform that is led by the private sector. It facilitates collective action on joint development and conservation solutions. It is a unique model that recognizes and empowers companies as powerful drivers of regional development who are often best equipped with science, technology and innovative solutions. The PPA represents 20+ private sector champions seeking new ways of doing business that enhance sustainability and forest and biodiversity conservation. The PPA’s Mission is “Partnering with private sector companies to develop and identify innovative solutions for sustainable development and biodiversity conservation of the Amazon.” In 2018, PPA launched its incubation and acceleration program in which 15 Amazonian startups are participating. Four of those have already received a total of U$300k in investments from USAID/Brazil and its partners investors.     

USAID/Brazil is committed to using its PSE strategy and strategic partnerships with the private sector to improve the cost effectiveness, impact, and sustainability of our development interventions. USAID further seeks to promote unique public-private partnerships through this engagement model that provide best practices and lessons learned that are at scale and/or can be replicated at scale, that are led by the private sector. Examples of our work can be found on the website  https://pcabhub.org/en-us.

Learn more:

Catalyzing Private Sector Led-Solutions

Partnership Platform for the Amazon (PPA)

http://aceleracao.ppa.org.br/