Cover photo from ecosistema urbano
By Javier García Moritán, Executive Director, Grupo de Fundaciones y Empresas (GDFE)
While discussing opportunities for multistakeholder partnerships for development with WINGS, the words of economist and professor at the University College London, Mariana Mazzucato, have frequently come to mind.
I have read many of her books, and recently I had the pleasure of attending her presentation at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata. With passion and force, she expressed her creative conception and reimagination of the state, and I would like to pass on the inspiration that I came away with, specifically regarding the establishment of alliances for the public good.
In philanthropy ecosystems, we are accustomed to identifying how to supplement government action when necessary or to provide support to social causes that do not have the necessary attention or resources to solve them. But governments have an irreplaceable role that cannot be overlooked, not everything can be addressed by private investment or philanthropy. That is why alliances are essential. We must also encourage all institutions to be the best versions of themselves: not only those within philanthropy, the non-profit sector, or even corporations, but also the state and its public entities.
We at the Grupo de Fundaciones y Empresas (GDFE) believe that an innovative space that encourages institutional reflection is needed to generate practical tools that advocate for public policies and ensure territorial implementation. The Public-Private LAB is a joint initiative between GDFE and the Local Innovation Network (RIL) that recognises this mission and is currently tracking meaningful evidence in ten Argentinian cities where local multistakeholder entities have committed to boosting new governance models focused on development.
Said alliances, and following Mazzucato’s view, should place the mission at the centre of their work. Just as in the 1960s when a collaborative and multisectoral revolution was conceived in order to put a man on the Moon, explains Mazzucato in Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, today’s economy and public policy can be aligned to achieve missions that are truly urgent for our society. Historically, the state has assumed the role of distributing economic gains only after they have been realised, attempting to create societal equity. Mazzucato proposes the opposite: instead of correcting for inequality after its occurrence, the state should work with the drivers of economic activity in order to promote the creation of value, considering this expression not just as economic value for shareholders but also for society as a whole. The role of ‘value creation’ requires the commitment of every institutional actor, meaning that the state plays a pre-distributive role, one in which it aligns its social equality objectives with private economic production. This would mean a joint definition of the largest structural problems of each nation, region, and municipality, and the creation of collaborative solutions through public-private alliances.
The Public-Private LAB works to achieve this through the creation of incentives and other public policy instruments that recognise businesses committed to social and environmental challenges and give support to civil society organisations (CSOs). These pillars allow us to reach our goal of real transformation and generate useful empirical evidence in each territory.
Through collaborative processes and adept methodologies, the Public-Private LAB seeks to create innovative partnership initiatives and design sustainable projects throughout Argentina. This work includes facilitating and participating in the implementation of projects as well as providing adequate resources and technical assistance at the local level.
The LAB currently operates in ten cities and underserved neighbourhoods throughout Argentina, with specialised areas of focus to best serve the needs of each locality. In the Patagonian town of Puerto San Julián, the Public-Private LAB has been working on a strategic project to diversify their model of production beyond mining, focusing on a sustainable development plan for 2035. In Buenos Aires, the LAB is continuing to work on creating a plan for a “15-minute city” together with twenty companies and local social organisations aiming to boost economic and social integration of a recently urbanised area within the Chacarita neighbourhood.
While we continue to carry out these initiatives, we are always working to bolster the existing public-private alliances. For example, in Bahia Blanca, we are in the process of instituting a multistakeholder council, and in Vicente Lopez, we are organising a committee of more than 50 public and private participants that focuses on their contribution to local environmental causes.
We are also exploring the creation of certifications for companies committed to the community in Sunchales and furthering our meaningful incentives for business contributions to education in Godoy Cruz. In the latter, a roundtable with 30 companies and CSOs committed to implementing in just one year what would have taken seven years for the local government to achieve with their budget. In this roundtable, members have dedicated themselves to closing the digital gap for 4th-grade students by providing them access to devices, improving connectivity infrastructure in schools, and offering teachers training on how to incorporate technology in the classroom. Currently, this programme, named Edutec, has been implemented in three schools, with the goal of expanding to 45 schools.
Working on the municipal scale, The Public-Private LAB has been able to pinpoint the needs of the local partnerships and bring about solutions. All projects outlined by the LAB are driven by the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals that provide a framework for the development of each city. We look forward to continuing to build examples of collaborative governance throughout the region and achieving greater development in even more localities. We also encourage all types of philanthropy support organisations to look for ways in which they can engage in multi-stakeholder collaboration in their countries and regions so that solutions can be achieved faster and with the participation of all the institutions in a society.
