San Bilal
Dr. Sanoussi Bilal is a Senior Executive and Associate Director Sustainable economies and climate action at ECDPM (NL, BE). He is an expert on development finance and economics, international trade & development, structural transformation, Europe-Africa economic relations, African integration and Ukraine reconstruction. His current activities focus on financing for development and sustainable investment, climate finance, blended finance, climate and agri-finance, and the role of public financial institutions for development. He is also a member of Finance in Common Summit (FICS)' Knowledge Advisory Group and a Coordination member of OECD-THK Blended Finance Platform, European Think Tank Group & Ukȧmȧ Africa-Europe platform for sustainable development.
Phone: +32-22374389
Address: ECDPM, 5 rue Archimède, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
Phone: +32-22374389
Address: ECDPM, 5 rue Archimède, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
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Videos by San Bilal
https://ecdpm.org/multimedia/reflections-european-financial-architecture-development/
Papers by San Bilal
https://ecdpm.org/work/using-special-drawing-rights-climate-resilient-food-systems-and-food-security
In this brief, we look at how the Global Gateway can make real progress towards operationalising a much-needed reorientation of EU international cooperation objectives and instruments to meet partners’ needs and to respond to current geostrategic realities. Achieving its investment target of €300 billion is crucial for the EU’s credibility. To do this – and possibly surpass it in the future – the EU and member states will need to enact a genuine shift in business practices. This includes rethinking their collective development cooperation objectives and taking a whole-of-government approach. This can happen through a series of political and technical evolutions, including on the narrative, the policy direction, the approach to partners, and the toolbox.
https://ecdpm.org/work/global-gateway-two-implementing-eu-strategic-ambitions
https://ecdpm.org/work/ukraine-facility-building-team-europe-and-european-investment-bank
To shed light on this process, ECDPM mapped instruments focused on engaging the private sector for development, and those supporting own businesses with commercial objectives in order to better understand their challenges, opportunities and synergies. We also examined EU matchmaking instruments with development cooperation and commercial interests.
This synthesis note summarises some of the key findings of our analysis so far, and presents implications and an outlook on what that means for public support instruments to better engage businesses for inclusive and sustainable development. It provides policy recommendations along the dimensions of institutions, instruments and criteria.
Key messages
Public instruments to support the private sector, for both development and commercial interests, have similar objectives and take similar forms. They, therefore, offer
potential synergies to achieve more sustainable development outcomes, while sharing risks, costs and resources.
ECDPM research points to a lack of consistent sustainability and development criteria for businesses to access public support instruments. While this is important for
development cooperation, commitments to both the 2030 Agenda and policy coherence for sustainable development also raise their importance for commercial instruments.
As development and commercial objectives are increasingly sought through private sector engagement at EU and national levels, there is a need for a more integrated approach to tackle global challenges: one that explicitly recognises the similarities between commercial and development instruments and draws lessons from both.
Systematically applied, sustainability criteria could increase the effectiveness and impact of all public support instruments to businesses and help ensure that firms actively contribute to development outcomes, beyond ‘doing no harm’.
https://ecdpm.org/bn90
Key messages
The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiated between the EU and regional blocs of African countries are meant to promote the gradual integration of African economies into global markets, including by supporting African businesses to increase their participation in regional and global value chains.
However, these EPAs do not significantly alter market access conditions relevant to many African producers and services providers, and are thus unlikely to have major direct impacts, either positive or negative, on their prospects for participating in regional and global value chains.
EPAs could have beneficial indirect impacts on African producers and services providers by encouraging investment and by facilitating support to interventions and initiatives that boost the capacity of African businesses to participate in regional and global trade, but such support will not automatically materialise through the conclusion of EPAs.
There is thus need for development partners and other actors to complement EPA implementation with support for value chain development initiatives and awareness-raising and capacity building to ensure African business can take advantage of EPA-related opportunities, and for the establishment and use of effective mechanisms to monitor EPA impacts.
https://ecdpm.org/dp213
https://ecdpm.org/multimedia/reflections-european-financial-architecture-development/
https://ecdpm.org/work/using-special-drawing-rights-climate-resilient-food-systems-and-food-security
In this brief, we look at how the Global Gateway can make real progress towards operationalising a much-needed reorientation of EU international cooperation objectives and instruments to meet partners’ needs and to respond to current geostrategic realities. Achieving its investment target of €300 billion is crucial for the EU’s credibility. To do this – and possibly surpass it in the future – the EU and member states will need to enact a genuine shift in business practices. This includes rethinking their collective development cooperation objectives and taking a whole-of-government approach. This can happen through a series of political and technical evolutions, including on the narrative, the policy direction, the approach to partners, and the toolbox.
https://ecdpm.org/work/global-gateway-two-implementing-eu-strategic-ambitions
https://ecdpm.org/work/ukraine-facility-building-team-europe-and-european-investment-bank
To shed light on this process, ECDPM mapped instruments focused on engaging the private sector for development, and those supporting own businesses with commercial objectives in order to better understand their challenges, opportunities and synergies. We also examined EU matchmaking instruments with development cooperation and commercial interests.
This synthesis note summarises some of the key findings of our analysis so far, and presents implications and an outlook on what that means for public support instruments to better engage businesses for inclusive and sustainable development. It provides policy recommendations along the dimensions of institutions, instruments and criteria.
Key messages
Public instruments to support the private sector, for both development and commercial interests, have similar objectives and take similar forms. They, therefore, offer
potential synergies to achieve more sustainable development outcomes, while sharing risks, costs and resources.
ECDPM research points to a lack of consistent sustainability and development criteria for businesses to access public support instruments. While this is important for
development cooperation, commitments to both the 2030 Agenda and policy coherence for sustainable development also raise their importance for commercial instruments.
As development and commercial objectives are increasingly sought through private sector engagement at EU and national levels, there is a need for a more integrated approach to tackle global challenges: one that explicitly recognises the similarities between commercial and development instruments and draws lessons from both.
Systematically applied, sustainability criteria could increase the effectiveness and impact of all public support instruments to businesses and help ensure that firms actively contribute to development outcomes, beyond ‘doing no harm’.
https://ecdpm.org/bn90
Key messages
The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) negotiated between the EU and regional blocs of African countries are meant to promote the gradual integration of African economies into global markets, including by supporting African businesses to increase their participation in regional and global value chains.
However, these EPAs do not significantly alter market access conditions relevant to many African producers and services providers, and are thus unlikely to have major direct impacts, either positive or negative, on their prospects for participating in regional and global value chains.
EPAs could have beneficial indirect impacts on African producers and services providers by encouraging investment and by facilitating support to interventions and initiatives that boost the capacity of African businesses to participate in regional and global trade, but such support will not automatically materialise through the conclusion of EPAs.
There is thus need for development partners and other actors to complement EPA implementation with support for value chain development initiatives and awareness-raising and capacity building to ensure African business can take advantage of EPA-related opportunities, and for the establishment and use of effective mechanisms to monitor EPA impacts.
https://ecdpm.org/dp213
CEPR Press, VoxEU.com ISBN: 978-1-912179-24-4
This eBook has been supported by funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 770680 (RESPECT: Revitalizing Europe’s Soft Power and External Cooperation and Trade).
https://voxeu.org/content/perspectives-soft-power-eu-trade-policy
Chapter 18 in Attridge, S., D.W. te Velde and S.P. Andreasen eds (2019), Impact of DFIs on sustainable development: An essay series, ODI and EDFI https://www.odi.org/publications/11431-impact-development-finance-institutions-sustainable-development
The international trade scene is in turmoil: trade conflicts and tensions are generating uncertainty for businesses and undermining the rules-based global trading system. Trade and trade policy have long been central elements of EU external policy. Trade policy is used to pursue multiple objectives, including economic interests as well as political, developmental, environmental and values-based objectives. EU trade agreements not only aim at reducing foreign market access barriers but condition the terms of preferential access to the European single market on non-trade regulation in partner countries in areas such as social and labour standards. Is this an effective strategy? Does it come at the cost of attaining economic objectives? Has the emphasis on bilateral and preferential trade arrangements come at the expense of multilateral cooperation? This collection of essays brings together different perspectives on some of these questions. The diversity of approaches and views illustrate the complexity of the EU trade-related policy agenda and suggest that trade-offs might not always be properly assessed, and the balance struck could be improved.
This eBook has been supported by funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 770680 (RESPECT: Revitalizing Europe’s Soft Power and External Cooperation and Trade). https://voxeu.org/content/perspectives-soft-power-eu-trade-policy
Note d'information relative aux sessions d'apprentissage entre pairs en faveur du Pacte du G20 avec l'Afrique 12 septembre 2019