Smart Partnerships

Yesterday flagged off a week of regional and international dialogue on social and economic development opportunities for Southern Africa. The talks dubbed ‘Global Southern Africa International Smart Partnership Dialogue’ is currently running at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka from July 28 to July 31 and carries the theme ‘Smart Partnerships in Economic Development and Diversity’.

Over 250 delegates have been registered from more than a dozen countries. Delegates range from Non Governmental Organisations and Private Sector Institutions, to senior Government officials and Heads of State.

The expectations from this gathering of not so familiar bedfellows is that at the end of the dialogue some productive agreements and partnerships will be made that will result in improved economic activity in all the countries represented. Part of the expectations will dwell on resource mobilisation and yet other expectations include skills sharing and transfers in addition to experience exchanges.

President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa’s welcoming remarks to the delegates described ‘Smart Partnership dialogues as platforms where participants, who become Smart Partners, discuss various issues related in particular, to development’

The President further stated that ‘The dialogue provides an atmosphere that creates unique friendships, bottom-to-top networks and an opportunity for joint ventures’

The President also highlights that ‘the dialogues focus on finding solutions and measures for achieving sustainable economic development’

The key driving mechanism for the whole dialogue period will be ‘Partnerships’. Partnership demands a level of equity by both parties. Partnership requires investment, commitment, responsibility, and obligations to be fulfilled by both parties. Partnership should produce benefits for both parties. The dialogue also pays special emphasis on ‘Diversity’ as being a recognised fundamental that should be taken into account and influence the discussions and deliberations.

There are some overriding benchmarks steering the dialogues and are contained in the word catch word ‘SMART’. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-limited actions to be taken by participating partners.

The Smart Partnership program has been running for over ten years now and has held annual dialogues in several African countries, Malaysia, and Barbados. The themes for each dialogue are specially chosen to target the major development challenges of the time, and in the selected region, to ensure relevance and ownership by the host country and all participating delegates.

Some sessions in this year’s dialogue will tackle the goal of transforming countries through realising national visions. For Zambia this means realising our Vision 2030 – to become a middle income nation by the year 2030. In addition, the dialogues will look at securing natural resources for diversified growth.

One session will be dedicated to engaging Smart Partners to share experiences and implementing opportunities with other Smart Partners. In this session Smart Partners will play the role of ‘sounding boards’ so that their real life experiences and responses can play a part in developing workable and sustainable solutions for other Smart Partners. This session will also require the Smart Partners to provide an update on their ongoing networking activities.

A special session will focus on enhancing the knowledge and application of current trends, opportunities and challenges related to climate change issues. The session will explore actions that Smart Partners can take and options for participating in the development of new standards. The session challenges the participants to be actively involved the Think Tank Factory of Ideas that the dialogue can produce. Hopefully, many of these ideas will be taken home by the Smart Partners for further development through partner networks, and possible implementation.

Two sessions will offer space for interactions between the Media and Communications partners from different areas and specialities. These sessions will also challenge the media with the question, ‘Can the Media assist with the Realisation of National Visions?’ The media will also be given the opportunity to provide their own reflections on the role of the media in development.

A ‘Hands on Experience’ session will take advantage of the Lusaka Agriculture and Commercial Show that is due to kick off at towards the end of the week. This session will allow of Smart Partners to visit the show and meet and dialogue with exhibitors, Non Governmental Organisations, and the public at large in an effort to establish some real linkages and new Smart Partnerships.

The whole week will be punctuated by various activities that will embrace Art and Culture. Social issues will be especially targeted and led by the First Ladies of Zambia and the Kingdom of Lesotho.

This action packed dialogue event will hopefully present some new business relationships that will upgrade our current business community in Zambia. In addition, some new investments are expected to be attracted through this dialogue process. There is an expectation that the dialogue and interaction does not end with the closing ceremony on Thursday afternoon. There is an open challenge to the business community out there, that even though the official dialogue event may only accommodate a selected group of delegates, many of the Smart Partners will still be available at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre on Thursday afternoon for open dialogue with any interested parties. In addition, the interaction and networks established at the dialogue event should continue behind the scenes long after the delegates have dispersed and gone back to their respective countries.

This event is taken very seriously by the Zambian Government and is therefore characterised by the attendance and active participation of the Minister of Commerce and Industry, the Minister of Finance and National Planning, and the Minister of Science, Technology and Vocational Training.

The Zambian business community should take this opportunity to engage with new partners in a Smart way. The opportunities have come to Zambia and we have only ourselves to blame if we do not take full advantage of what is at our door step. The obvious thing to do is to get involved, to get engaged, and to get SMART this week.

Published 29 July 2008