At the Doha Conference on Financing for Development, Ricarda McFalls, Managing Director of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), stressed that access to finance was one of the cornerstones of a thriving small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in developing countries, and she presented successful models for integrating local SMEs into the supply chain of big corporations operating in developing countries.
Mobilizing the necessary finance for SMEs and helping the poor access finance in the context of the current global financial crisis was the subject of the Second International Business Forum on Financing for Development, which preceded the United Nations's Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development to Review the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus.
At the forum, attended by some 200 international business, government and civil society leaders, McFalls said innovative partnerships between business, government and development organizations were required to scale up efforts to meet the urgent demands for credit and skills development of this sector. As well as providing access to credit, governments had a role to play in unleashing capital for infrastructure projects that stimulate business activity in the short-term while paving the way for long-term growth.
Mrs. McFalls also presented (download her presentation) the work of the WBCSD-SNV Alliance for Inclusive Business, which last year had published an Issue Brief on SME Development. The publication explains how governments can help alleviate poverty by focusing on SMEs and how larger corporations can help themselves by including SMEs in their value chains.
In his opening remarks to the forum, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said that with the Monterrey Consensus business came to be recognized as a crucial part of the solution to development challenges and that “the private sector must continue to be a partner in the creation of wealth and its equitable sharing with the host countries.”
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