Climate Week NYC’s opening ceremony provided an example of public private alliance that defies belief. The Rethinking Resiliency, a panel on innovative solutions for climate adaptation, brought us an example of the insurance company Swiss Re bringing disaster insurance to the 39,000 microfinance clients of Fonkoze Financial Services in Haiti.

Ann Hastings, Fonkoze CEO, has seen disasters from weather and earthquake undo successes many times. Hurricanes, tropical storms, and earthquake have destroyed  financial stability achieved through struggle to pay back micro loans. Ann has raised funds for loan forgiveness to restore such progress several times. Now, in a breathtaking example of public private partnership between an especially creative non-governmental organization Fonkoze and Swiss Re, Fonkoze offers disaster insurance to its clients. Swiss Re will pay out if certain levels of disaster are reached. Swiss Re simply pays Fonkoze which in turn pays insured disaster victims. With 41 offices in Haiti, Fonkoze can service claims and not rely on the kindness of strangers every time disaster strikes!

WHAT:      Global Summit for Strengthening Public Private Partnerships to Accelerate Global Electricity Technology Deployment 

WHERE:     UN Headquarters. 

WHEN:      June 2, 11 am to 6 pm. 

HOW TO REGISTER:       https://www.SignUp4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=E8GL10E  

Registration will close soon.  Also, please notify David Stillman, ppafoundation@gmail.com so we will know that you are attending.  We look forward to seeing you there. 

Mike Morris, the Chairman and CEO of American Electric Power and of the e8 and Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, the head of UN Energy are extending the welcome to additional participants for the Global Summit.    

UN-Energy is the interagency mechanism on energy.  It was established to help ensure coherence in the UN system’s multi-disciplinary response to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and to ensure the effective engagement of non-UN stakeholders in implementing WSSD energy-related decisions. It aims to promote system-wide collaboration in the area of energy with a coherent and consistent approach since there is no single entity in the UN system that has primary responsibility for energy.

The e8 is a non-profit international organization, composed of 10 world leading electricity companies.  Created in the wake of the 1992 Rio Summit on environment, Its mission is to play an active role in global electricity issues within the international framework and to promote sustainable energy development through electricity sector projects and human capacity building activities in developing and emerging nations worldwide. 

CNE President Enrique Ramirez Addresses Forum

Dr. David Stillman and Tom Kadala, MBA, leaders of this recently-formed public-private partnership, traveled to Santo Domingo to discuss the report and to work with the CNE and others to prepare for the upcoming Fourth Bioenergy International Debate, scheduled for December 3-4, 2009.    Along with Ambassador Federico Cuello and Rafael Fernandez, CEO of RJS Group, Stillman and Kadala took part in Sabado Agropecurio, a Dominican agricultural television journal, on November 21.  The interviewer was Manuel González Tejera.

L. to R: Seated: R. Fernandez, Amb. F. Cuello, M. Gonzalez Tejera; Standing, D. Stillman, T. Kadala

The partners also attended the 14th Regional Forum on Biofuels and Other Renewable Energies (XIV Foro Regional “Biocombustibles y Otras Energías Renovables), which took place from 18 – 20 November.  About 350 people from the region attended.  The forum featured national and technological updates on renewable energy in the region. It was organized by the Central American Integration System and its Alliance on Energy and the Environment in Central America.   The region includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama; the Dominican Republic is an associate member.  See:  http://www.sica.int/ .  The governments of Austria, Finland and the European Commission supported the forum.

Forum participants also toured Fluitecnik Solar Republica Dominicana, which produces solar panels that are part of the national grid, and LineaClave Internacional, S.A., which produces and develops a retail market for natural gas.

Ing. Carlos Lubrano, D. Stillman and T. Kadala at LineaClave

Nikhil Seth, Director of the Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination introduced the report on UNPPA. E/2009/72    It is also available in Spanish and French.  He said that the promotion of rural development was essential to reducing poverty and for promoting better standards of living for much of the world’s population and for meeting the Millennium Development Goals.  The report provides updates to the 2003 declaration of promoting partnerships amongst stakeholders in support of rural development. It highlights the importance of rural development and the impact of the recent global financial and economic crisis on this. According to the report, the crisis can be expected to further impoverish people in many developing countries, and further compound their difficulties arising from food and energy crises and the climate change.

In the discussion among government representatives to ECOSOC, speakers said that partnerships among stakeholders were vital for rural development and in protecting local resources.  In particular the United States delegate encouraged the UN to foster partnerships focusing on sharing knowledge and expertise for development of rural communities and to promote partnerships for sustainable development.

The Report makes special note of the contributions of the Public-Private Alliance Foundation (PPAF) to the efforts of UNPPA by bringing together corporate sector, government, civil society, academia, and the United Nations, to facilitate linkages, promote partnerships, encourage capacity-building and mobilize resources, commerce and investment in support of development.  The report also highlights the PPAF role in two UNPPA countries – Madagascar and the Dominican Republic.

In May 2007, PPAF held its first Partners Against Poverty event at the United Nations, to connect policy-makers with local development initiatives. This led to organizing a conference on fish farming in the Dominican Republic, with collaboration from the Dominican Aquaculture Association (ADOA), the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, the UN South-South Unit, the FAO and others.  ADOA has since taken several further actions.  PPAF enabled Esperanza International, a microfinance organization in the D.R., to obtain a grant from Western Union Foundation.  PPAF provided funds to the Office of the First Lady of the D.R. for community efforts to rebuild housing after tropical storms.  PPAF also promoted the charitable work of the famous Madagascar singing group Mahaleo and the opening of a permanent exhibit on Madagascar at the Bronx Zoo.

At its second annual Partners Against Poverty event at the United Nations in July 2008, public, private and other representatives gathered to focus on promotion of health, agribusiness, renewable energy, sustainable tourism, microfinance and entrepreneurship in Madagascar and the Dominican Republic.  This led to PPAF collaboration with Project C.U.R.E. to deliver over $1.2 million in medical equipment and supplies to Madagascar. The Permanent Mission of Madagascar to the UN and Project C.U.R.E worked to raise $100,000 from private donors for shipment of the goods.

Building upon the 2008 meeting PPAF has worked with a Dominican growers’ nonprofit organization, GLOCAL, and with a Canadian buyer and investor, Oneel Corporation, to promote production and export of vegetables and fruits and related farmers’ capacity-building.  PPAF has also collaborated with New York representatives from the National Supermarkets Association, the distribution company Super-Produce, and the Centre for Export and Investment of the D.R., to promote Dominican exports to New York’s Hunts Point Market.

PPAF and business collaborators also explored issues of sugar-based ethanol and related bio-energy, leading to a partnership with ResearchPAYS, Inc. to develop further initiatives for stakeholder collaboration.

PPAF’s third annual Partners Against Poverty event (May 2009) brought together high-level Dominican, Brazilian, Haitian, U.S. and UN public and private participants to focus on ethanol, leading to further work in New York and the Dominican Republic on investment and commercial prospects of bioenergy.

PPAF continues to work with the United Nations and other stakeholders to promote development and alleviate poverty in developing countries. PPAF looks forward to building upon its collaborations in the Dominican Republic and Madagascar and expanding these to Haiti.

The full article, Dominican Republic ripe for sugar-cane ethanol financing, can be found below:

With many of its sugar-cane fields lying fallow, the Dominican Republic is ideal for ethanol investment, and a non-governmental organisation (NGO) has launched a major initiative to make sure that happens.

The New York-based Public-Private Alliance Foundation (PPAF) is seeking ways to finance ethanol deals, It aims to “reach business deals in ethanol and related biofuels”, says David Stillman, PPAF executive director, PPAF says it has received calls from groups in places as diverse as Hong Kong and New Jersey that are interested in participating.

Sugar is currently grown in the Dominican Republic, but ethanol is not produced because Stillman says it considered that “the market was not right”. However, steps have been taken to improve market prospects, including a law that promotes renewable energy with favourable taxation and import-structure regulations.

PPAF held a major meeting last month, bringing together government, business, NGO and academic representatives,

Grupo Vicini, which has been growing and milling sugar cane in the Dominican Republic since the 19th Century, is participating in the PPAF discussions, and is analysing the potential of producing ethanol and co-generating electricity.

‘We are still going over the numbers,” explains Marino Incháustegui, industry and energy director at Vicini. The analysis should he done within the next four months.

He adds that while ethanol investments will be judged by the bottom line, “if the bottom line is there, we will be there”.

The export potential for the Dominican Republic is also promising, as it is not limited by trade barriers like those in Brazil, where the US imposes a $0.54 per gallon tax. Brazil is being consulted, due to its years of ethanol-production experience, and it is hoped Brazilian development bank BNDES will be interested in financing local production.

However, one possible problem specific to the Dominican Republic is that most of the cane-cutters are Haitian immigrants. There are long-standing issues regarding both illegal immigration in the country and their working conditions, which must be tackled if plans go ahead.

The article is available for download in PDF, Microsoft Word .DOC, and JPG.

Bill Miller, host and producer of Global Connections Television, interviewed Francis Lorenzo, Ambassador, Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations and Vice-Chair of the Board for the Public-Private Alliance Foundation. They discussed the Millennium Development Goals in the D.R and how public-private alliances can contribute to alleviating poverty.