The Importance of Public-Private Partnerships - Orlando Ayala
I’m now back in Redmond after my recent travels in Berlin, London and Abu Dhabi. It’s often difficult to get an immediate sense of the “big picture” during trips like these, moving rapidly between different cities, countries and time zones and encountering new ideas and information almost constantly. Fortunately, the past several days have given me some time to reflect on these encounters and what I can best take away from them and apply to our work through the Unlimited Potential Group.
Looking back, I think the connecting thread through all of my experiences was consistently witnessing the clear importance of Public-Private Partnerships in our efforts—from participating in the Government Leaders Forums with a variety of our governmental and NGO partners to witnessing the tremendous impact that the fruits of these partnerships were having on the lives of individuals and communities. Bridging differences of language, nationality, and culture, our ultimate goal was the same: to create sustained social and economic opportunity for everyone through the benefits made possible by the transformative power of software and technology.
As I mentioned in my last post, Bill Gates recently introduced his idea of “creative capitalism” at the World Economic Forum in Davos—a concept almost entirely driven by these public-private collaborations between corporations, governments, and NGOs to apply market forces to help those most in need. It’s something that Unlimited Potential has been doing every day since Bill announced our group’s expansion at last year’s Government Leaders Forum—Asia, and we rely very strongly upon Public-Private Partnerships to support our efforts to transform education, foster innovation, and create job and economic opportunity for everyone.
By definition, a Public-Private Partnership involves bringing together multiple stakeholders operating within a consortium. And as I’m sure you can guess from the name, it requires at least one public entity (such as a government ministry or NGO) as well as at least one private entity (such as Microsoft) to participate. Ultimately, the benefit of Public-Private Partnerships translates to creating new value—for both the participants within the partnership and the beneficiaries of each program. By working together, each side can achieve the goals they strive for. Often, these goals would be unattainable if the private entity engaged the government or NGO alone, or vice versa. But by cooperating to put together comprehensive solutions that meet the needs of both sides—and, of course, the main priority is to meet the needs of the individuals served by the respective effort—it is possible to deliver an increasing amount of value over time to everyone involved.
Towards the end of my time in Abu Dhabi, I had the opportunity to participate in a panel on this very topic, featuring former Jordanian Ambassador to the US Karim Kawar, now president of the Kawar Group, and Dr. Nabil Ali Alyousef, executive president of the Dubai School of Government. Though our respective areas of expertise, knowledge, and resources varied widely, common among all of us was the desire to increase economic competiveness in the Arab region, creating opportunities for people there to build a better life for themselves and their families.
Ambassador Kawar made a point that really resonated for me: that education, more than any other factor, contributes to progress within a population. He discussed the work in Jordan over the past several years to transform education and get the next generation of workers ready to fully take advantage of increased social and economic opportunity. To do so, the government of Jordan, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, has launched the Jordan Education Initiative. The Initiative is aimed at transforming their education system, taking a new approach that emphasizes Public-Private Partnerships as a means to increase quality in the development and delivery of education. According to the WEF, there are now 17 global corporations (including Microsoft), 17 Jordanian entities and 11 governmental and non-governmental organizations working together as part of the JEI. This is not only remarkable simply for the breadth of partners participating, but also in that the government of Jordan has realized the importance of Public-Private Partnerships and reached almost 3000 teachers with ICT training, equipped 100 with computers and computer labs, and have begun digitizing content in core subject areas and piloting in schools.
Throughout the panel, we discussed other compelling examples of how this hope for increased opportunity was transforming into reality through the programs that Microsoft and our government and NGO partners were supporting in the region. I mentioned one program we’re currently operating in Saudi Arabia in partnership with the Ministry of Education and MGD Computer Systems. The Saudi Ministry of Education was challenged with how to integrate ICT into the curriculum across the country so students can acquire the skills needed to be successful in a tech-focused world. Microsoft has since worked with MGD to digitize course content and support ICT skills training for teachers and school administrators. And to date, 70% of the national curriculum in Saudi Arabia has been digitally converted and is available to schools in 42 regions, benefitting 100,000 teachers and 2 million students.
One of our programs within Unlimited Potential that specifically focuses on Public-Private Partnerships is Partners for Technology Access—an innovative global initiative that leverages PPPs to make technology solutions affordable and relevant for underserved citizens and small business owners. PTA draws on the expertise of governments, technology partners and financial institutions to craft solutions that meet people’s needs, invigorate markets, and help achieve broader public policy goals. And, of course, our Partners in Learning program, which Microsoft announced a major five-year recommitment to at GLF Europe, is another great example of the power of Public-Private Partnerships at work.
While providing access to technology is key to our mission through Unlimited Potential—and Microsoft’s core strength in its efforts to further the message and expression of creative capitalism—bridging the digital divide in and of itself will be insufficient to achieve our goal of creating sustained social and economic opportunity for the next 5 billion people. We must focus on other divides, as well—the gaps present across the world in access to quality education and in economic competitiveness and opportunity, among others. Technology is a powerful tool, but it will take the participation and cooperation of people and organizations committed to making a change to scale its impact in an effective and transformative way. It’s traditionally been a way for those in the developed world to forge ahead – now it’s time to use the power of technology to ensure we don’t leave anyone behind.
I’m excited to see how corporations around the world, our partners and others in the industry will react to this new course for the future that has now been proposed through the concept of creative capitalism. I can’t predict what their contributions will be, but I know for certain that we will be there alongside them—working in partnership to offer Microsoft’s skills and abilities to create a better life for more people, allowing them to better fulfill their rich human potential.
