1. Farmer First Revisited 12 – 14 December 2007 at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK Presentation, Theme 2a, Public-private linkages Rapporteur’s summary of the discussion

2. Public private partnerships

3. What is a PPP? Existing classifications not so helpful, need to ask: what are PPPs responding to? Different challenges/opportunities: -Market -Political -Expertise/skills/knowledge -Institutional/policy/regulation The shape of a PPP will be very different, depending….

4. What is the public good/welfare return from PPPs? A key question, which is often not asked/answered well… It will depend on: Large scale TNC or a network of small companies Focused on technology transfer or service delivery or institutional arrangements Major investment in R and D/production or a relatively minor tweaking For different settings, we don’t know what has the best outcome…..

5. The bigger question How are public resources best allocated for greatest impact at a system level? For example…. Q: Should public funds be invested upstream supporting companies or downstream generating demand or direct subsidies to farmers? A: We don’t know, it depends… Need action research/experimentation and learning to test out a diversity of different models and approaches in different system contexts…… and assess impact.

6. How to ensure accountability? To farmers… and multiple system stakeholders: ensuring voice and capacity to engage. Defining roles in allocating funds, assessing impacts and use But, who is accountable to who in relation to what? Often not clear. Mechanisms – multiple stakeholder platforms etc. Feedback as essential to successful systems