By Christopher Mason
GV Contributor

MONTRÉAL – At a recent gathering of international development experts, conversation was peppered with the sort of words and terms –  'aid', 'donor', 'development goals', 'capacity-building' – typical of a roomful of NGO staffers, academics and government donors.

But the vocabulary, and tone, at the conference, called “The Challenges of Development Today”, changed with the beginning of a panel discussion on the private sector's role in development efforts.

Suddenly, words like 'investment', 'business plan' and, yes, 'profit' became more prevalent as panel members and the audience discussed the relationship between private companies, aid organizations and developing countries.

Certain words, and motives, are of course not exclusive to either the NGO or business communities. But the perspectives of each were explored at the conference held recently to launch McGill University's new Institute for the Study of International Development, in conjunction with the Public Policy Forum.

Specifically, the conference asked what role private business can play in Canada's international development aspirations.

Mixing development with for-profit operations has at times been controversial and is sometimes met with cynicism, but the private sector can also act as an engine for economic growth and poverty reduction in developing economies.

Some who work in development for private companies also say their self-interest eliminates waste and allows them to work most efficiently on achievable development projects.

“As a private company we need to respond very quickly if we want to stay in operation,” said Robb McCue, an education specialist with Agriteam, who has worked with both private companies and NGOs. “It's an incentive that ensures donor priorities are followed, for better or for worse.”

McCue and the other panel members – Ronald Denom, President of SNC-Lavalin International Inc. and David Tennant Sr., executive director of Canadian Economic Development Assistance for Southern Sudan (CEDASS) – outlined their work in economic development and the unique perspective of private business in many of the issues facing the development community.

Denom's SNC-Lavalin has worked on many international construction and mining projects, often in partnership with agencies and donors such as the Red Cross and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

Denom told the audience about his company's work in Madagascar, where they have a five per cent stake in a $3.2 billion  nickel mining project that he said would provide economic development and skills training for the surrounding region.

As part of the project, 30 contracts have been set aside for small and medium local businesses, totaling US$300 million for work such as vest-making, fencing and waste management. In all, Madagascar workers will account for 7,000 of the 12,000 total workforce, Denom said.

He stressed that such projects are not intended to remake a country socially, politically and economically. The hope, he said, is to give the economy a boost while providing livelihoods.

“What we do at the project level has little influence at the state level,” he said.

Canadian businessman Tennant Sr. is seeking to apply his background, and those of other businessmen from London, Ont., to a farming project in South Sudan as executive director of CEDASS, with the goal of supplying humanitarian aid through economic development.

The self-funded organization of volunteer businessmen is organizing farm equipment and expertise to be sent to South Sudan, where local residents will be trained on farming techniques on a 1,000 acre test farm.

The group's goal is to set up a food supply chain that can locally generate the food necessary to support area residents. They are also helping to find international markets for gum arabic, taken from acacia trees and used in foods and inks.

“We come from a business background, we have to see a viable business plan,” Tennant told the audience. “I believe the key to success in the developing world is generating wealth.”

The panel members faced some skepticism from audience members who questioned the extent of the economic impact, particularly in the case of the nickel mine in Madagascar, where one audience member wondered what long-term skills were being taught by awarding local residents a contract to make safety vests.

The questions illustrated a sometimes difference in approach to development that can cause friction between private enterprise and aid workers-- namely that the private businesses represented at the conference spoke primarily of the immediate economic development their project would provide, while many of the aid workers in the audience focused their questions on the broader impact the private projects would have on the respective states.

One audience member asked Tennant how the organization had obtained the land for the farming project and how he could ensure the land hadn't been taken from local residents.

Tennant replied that the land was communal and under the stewardship of local leaders who allowed its use for farming. “We have to be careful that we don't try to tell them what to do,” Tennant said.

The panel members were further questioned on the social benefits of their projects, and to what extent they were aware of broader development efforts in their respective project regions.

“You have to be careful not to throw out the baby with the bath water,” Tennant replied, saying a project should not be discredited because it is driven by private enterprise. “To be good for business is not to discredit what is being done.”

Although philosophies can differ, private enterprise and aid workers can use different means to satisfy similar end results, said Charles Bassett, former senior vice-president of CIDA and former Canadian executive director of the Inter-American Development Bank.

He cited mining in South America as a way that self-interest can achieve positive results, saying the threat of social upheaval encourages private enterprise to conduct their work ethically to avoid a negative impact on their business.

He added that Canadian development agencies need to understand the private sector's role in development because Canada's growing tendency to use its development assistance budget to achieve its own domestic trade and diplomatic priorities will lead to increasing overlap between business interests and aid work.

“This skews priorities, as we see with the latest list of 20 priority countries, many of which are not among the world's poorest,” Bassett said.