Government, Private Sector and Civil Society

Partnership is needed among the three sectors for growth and development, writes Otive Igbuzor

The challenge of development is arguably one of the greatest challenges that have dominated world history. Human beings have always been concerned about how to improve their condition of living and better confront the forces of nature and the environment. Over the years, a lot of progress has been made on how to deal with the challenges of development and improve the standard and condition of living of human beings. Development theorists and practitioners are agreed that partnership among government, private sector and civil society is the most effective way to achieve sustainable economic and social benefits and achieve the sustainable development goals. The development of society requires the partnership between government, private sector and civil society. But first, we look at the development of society and the trisector model.

Human beings have always been concerned about how to improve their condition of living and better confront the forces of nature and the environment. Over the years, a lot of progress has been made on how to deal with the challenges of development and improve the standard and condition of living of human beings. It has been well established that every society has the capacity to develop and all societies strive for development. But the concept of development is a very controversial one. We have argued elsewhere that the definitions and interpretations of development are influenced by history, discipline, ideological orientation and training. Chambers defines development as “good change”. This definition envisages that development is synonymous with progress. This progress should entail an all-encompassing improvement, a process that builds on itself and involve both individuals and social change. Kamghampati argues that development requires growth and structural change, some measure of distributive equity, modernization in social and cultural attitudes, a degree of political transformation and stability, an improvement in health and education so that population growth stabilizes, and an increase in urban living and employment. In our view, development always involves change that affects various facets of life including economic, social and political spheres. Sustainable development means that development is achieved without excess environmental degradation, in a way that both protects the rights and opportunities of coming generations and contributes to compatible approaches.

The past five decades have witnessed monumental changes in the world. Global economic wealth has increased sevenfold and average incomes have tripled. Yet, poverty has increased to record high levels. The major problem is that wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people while majority of the people live in abject poverty. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its 1998 report documented that the three richest people in the world had assets that exceed the combined Gross Domestic Product of the 48 least developed countries.

As at the start of 2014, Oxfam calculated that the richest 85 people on planet earth owned as much as the poorest half of humanity. Between March, 2013 and March, 2014, these 85 people grew $668 million richer each day. If Bill Gates were to spend $1 million every single day, it will take him 218 years to spend it all. In reality though, he would never run out of money: even at a modest return of just two per cent would make him $4.2 million each day in interest alone.

By 2015, the number has decreased to 80 richest people having the same wealth as the poorest 50 per cent. By 2018, Oxfam showed that only 26 richest people on earth had the same net wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population (3.8 billion) people. The 2019 Oxfam report showed that billionaire fortunes increased by 12 per cent in 2018- or $2.5 billion a day while the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth decline by 11 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of billionaires has almost doubled since the financial crisis, with a new billionaire created every two days between 2017 and 2018, yet wealthy individuals and corporations are paying lower rates of tax than they have in decades.

In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, income inequality is at its highest level in the last 50 years. The average income of the richest 10 per cent of the population is about nine times that of the poorest 10 per cent.

Some scholars have advanced several reasons for the growing inequality in the world including globalization and technological progress. But experiences of different countries have shown that it is more of deliberate political and economic choices driven by market fundamentalism and the capture of power by economic elites.

It has been documented that there is a strong link between gender inequality and economic inequality. Studies show that in more economically unequal societies, fewer women complete higher education, fewer women are represented in the legislature and the pay gap between women and men is wider.

Meanwhile, it has been recognised that the three sectors: government, private sector and civil society have great roles to play in the development of society and that this needs to be done in partnership. But it must be understood that the three sectors have different motivations, approaches and experiences. The motivation for government is provision of services to all citizens; the motivation of the private sector is profit while the motivation of civil society is the protection of specialised groups and the vulnerable (the poor, persons with disability, persons living with HIV/AIDS, women, children, trafficked persons, etc).

The approach of government is utilisation of bureaucracy with emphasis on the political rather than the economic and rational.

–– Excerpts from an address at the annual conference of the Nigeria Network of NGOS by Dr Igbuzor, Chief of Staff to Deputy President of the Senate.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)