by - Jason Carney

Governments, United Nations (UN) agencies and others have committed to working with the private sector to achieve development outcomes in a number of major UN conferences, at the G-20 and in other high level fora.1 As the MDGs approach their deadline, the questions of how best to expand and enhance partnerships with the private sector to achieve the post-2015 development agenda is under much discu. [...] For example, the joint statement on the role of the private sector in development at the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness included the following principles to maximize the benefit of coordination and collaboration for development: inclusive dialogue; collective action; sustainability; transparency; and accountability for results (HLF4 2011, 2-3). [...] Social justice The ethics principle of social justice refers to the duty of development cooperation actors to reduce poverty and help those in need by ensuring benefits of the development process accrue to the poor over the rich. [...] The due diligence and screening process is led by a responsible officer, who applies three steps: exclusion screening where an answer of ‘yes’ to any of the questions results in rejection of the partner; cautionary questions where an answer of ‘yes’ to any of the questions results in referral of the decision to a Partnership Committee; and positive screening where a score of one to nine is generat. [...] Again, the presentation of opportunity in partnership may lead to a compromise of the published policies and ethics principles, and the resulting partnership arrangements and their contracts would shed light on the ethics principles followed in practice, and provide an assessment of the actual impacts on the ground.