Succeeding at Private Sector Engagement (PSE):
A Hands-On Online Training
Why PSE is Critical.
Partnerships with the private sector are often essential for creating lasting social impact. Businesses bring innovation, investment, and market-driven solutions that can accelerate progress on complex development challenges. When done right, PSE helps scale solutions, create jobs, and build self-sustaining economies. Moreover, in the current unstable context, the private sector offers large and potentially more consistent and sustainable sources of funding for social impact than traditional funders.
Why partnerships often fail.
Despite the potential, partnerships between development actors and the private sector often fall short. Misaligned incentives, poorly developed agreements, miscommunication, and a lack of mutual understanding can undermine collaboration. Without the right skills and approach, these partnerships can lead to frustration, missed opportunities and even failure.
This training is designed to help avoid and correct these common challenges. This course specifically helps to answer the following questions:
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How can we ensure our program is set for success for PSE?
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How can we assess which companies have the greatest potential for success?
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How can we launch successful partnerships more quickly?
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How can we communicate effectively with potential private sector partners?
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How can we select the most suitable partnership agreement type?
What You Will Learn
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Practical tools and frameworks to initiate and sustain private sector partnerships
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Insights from real-world case studies of successful (and unsuccessful) collaborations
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Strategies to align development goals with business interests
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Confidence to navigate the complexities of working with the private sector
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Skills for communicating with the private sector using business language that resonates with them
What You Will Gain
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Access to the collective decades of experience of the MSA team and its trainers
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An opportunity to meet and network with other high-level professionals working in the field
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A course certification and a badge you can add to your LinkedIn profile
Our Trainers
Ben Fowler has more than 22 years of experience designing, implementing and measuring PSE across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. Across the range of approaches he has applied, including market systems development, value chain development, business environment reform and others, effective engagement with the private sector has been a common theme. Ben’s experience spans the agricultural, textile, water, real estate, trade, and manufacturing sectors.
Khaled Khan is responsible for MSA’s training portfolio and acts as the lead trainer for the MSD 101, MEL in MSD, GESI in MSD, and Learning and Adaptation trainings. He has trained organizations and projects in Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda. Over the years he has conducted both in-person and virtual training using interactive training tools. Khaled brings over 18 years of hands-on PSE experience leading program implementation and brokering partnerships in agriculture, mechanization, WASH, skills development, ICT, and finance sectors.
Erin Markel has spent her career researching, implementing, and measuring gender and social inclusion solutions. She is a global thought leader in measuring women’s economic empowerment and the return on investment for the private sector’s work on social inclusion. She has authored several influential publications and frameworks to support women’s empowerment practitioners, including co-authoring USAID’s Women-Inclusive Return on Investment Framework for working with SMEs, USAID’s Women’s Economic Empowerment framework, CGAP’s gendered social norms diagnostic guidance, and the IFC’s toolkit on Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment in Private Sector Development.
Cost and Logistics
Course fee (all prices are inclusive of a 20% discount for early applicants)
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$500$400 for individuals
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$690$550 for companies with fewer than 3 participants
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$625$500 for companies with 3 or more participants
Format: Online, self-paced with interactive sessions
Duration: 4 weeks
Why Learn from Us?
We are a recognized leader in PSE, with years of experience facilitating successful collaborations between development practitioners and businesses. We have brokered deals with multinational firms all the way to small local businesses. We have worked with development partners including the United Nations, the World Bank, bilateral governments in the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand. And we’ve brokered partnerships that address issues in sectors including water, agriculture, education, health, textiles, and many more. This experience has been earned in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Our team has a proven track record of helping organizations forge partnerships that deliver real results.
We’ve dedicated more than a year harvesting global lessons on what works—and what doesn’t—in the PSE landscape and are bringing that learning to you through this course. We teach through ready-to-apply tools, meaning that you will walk away with a toolkit that you can immediately apply in your work.
Furthermore, this course is designed for anyone to take it. No past experience is needed in private sector engagement, value chain development, market systems development, private public partnership creation, etc.