PPP Enabling Partners to Assist Ethiopia: UNIDO

Addis Ababa March 27/2019 The Public-Private Partnership, which Ethiopia has been promoted since recently, is helping UNIDO in convening with different partners to enhance engagement of the private sector in the country, the UN Agency said.

UNIDO Representative and Director of the Regional Hub in Addis Ababa, Aurelia Calabro told ENA that the agency is working with other UN organizations and the private sector to assist Ethiopia.

Last year, Ethiopia enacted a new proclamation facilitating Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), recognizing that the private sector is essential to support the country's economic growth and improve the quality of public services.

The Representative said “we are convening with various partners both from other UN organizations such as World Bank’s Development Finance (DFi), African Development Bank and European Investment Bank as well as other private actors such as Volvo Group and Illycaffe for partnership in Ethiopia.”

“Ethiopia’s partnership open up is convening for our Program for Country Partnership in Ethiopia as we are working on the fields of agribusiness and other cross-cutting sector developments,” she said.

Volvo Group, the world’s leading manufacturer of trucks, buses, construction equipment and marine and industrial engines, has partnered with UNIDO, Selam Children's Village and SIDA.

This partnership has led to the inauguration of the Misale Driver Academy, the first vocational school for the training of trainers and commercial vehicle drivers in Ethiopia which has inaugurated yesterday.

Illycaffe, an Italian Premium coffee maker, is another private company partnered with UNIDO to assist Ethiopia's development endeavors by establishing coffee training school in the country.

The private company that purchases 70 percent of its coffee beans from Ethiopia, is going to establish a coffee-roasting training center in Addis Ababa.

The center, which will be the first of its kind, is mainly targeted coffee growers in Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples regional states.

“Illycaffe has improved the agronomic practice of the value chain in terms of quality and shifting to a related sector like establishing coffee training school under the coffee authority that will be inaugurated after six months in September,” she said.

The coffee training school will help build capacity of growers and producers so as to improve the value chain and contribute to the development of the sector, she added.

The Representative noted that “if you deal with the private sector and entities, like what we are doing with Volvo Group and Illycaffe, they help you to ensure the market of the country.”

UNIDO, in close cooperation with the ministries of Trade & Industry, Agriculture, and Finance, gives technical assistance to projects being implemented in various parts of the country.

The projects are the four agro-industrial parks being developed in four regional states, the Modjo leather city, and the skill upgrading pilot program in Mekelle textile and apparel hub.

Ethiopia started bench marking industrial development experiences, streamlining operations and adopted industrial strategy since 2003 that helped UNIDO to effectively address some of the industrialization needs in the country, she explained.

UNIDO, which was established in 1966, started to work in Ethiopia since 1968. It mobilizes knowledge, skill, information and technology to promote productive employment, competitive economy and enhance cooperation at global, regional, national and sectoral levels.