ReGrow West Africa: Post-Ebola Private Sector Recovery

Photo Credit: Adam Schultz / Clinton Global Initiative

Call to Action: Ebola - CGI 2015 Annual Meeting

Commitment to Action

ReGrow West Africa: Post-Ebola Private Sector Recovery

Commitment by

RESOLVE

In 2015, RESOLVE and its partners in ReGrow West Africa committed to support post-crisis, sustainable economic development in the Ebola affected countries of West Africa. Through this commitment, ReGrow will launch the ReGrow Marketplace to profile investment projects and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and help engage them with international investors, donors, and other partners. In addition, ReGrow will capitalize the Resilience trust with a further $3.5 million, building on a $1 million funding commitment from Chevron, to provide direct investment in SMEs and certain high impact greenfield investment projects. ReGrow West Africa is a public-private partnership that that was launched in January and is a legacy initiative of the Ebola Private Sector Mobilization Group (EPSMG). By October 2017, ReGrow aims to support 90 SMEs with direct cash investment from ReGrow Trust and provide them with technical training and support under Cordaids Resilient Business Development Services model. In addition, ReGrow will help revive at least 15 investment projects of existing large scale enterprises that are now stalled and help execute at least 12 greenfield ventures.

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Overview

Summary

Commitment

ReGrow West Africa: Post-Ebola Private Sector Recovery

Launched

2015

Est. Duration

2 years

Estimated Total Value

$8,500,000

Region

Africa

Countries

GUINEA, LIBERIA, SIERRA LEONE

Commitment by

RESOLVE

Partner(s) of the Commitment Maker(s)

Ebola Private Sector Mobilization Group, Mano River Marketing Company, GIZ, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Chevron Corporation, Dalan Consultants, Taia Peace Foundation, Cordaid, Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency

Details

RESOLVE and its partners in ReGrow West Africa commit to support post-crisis, sustainable economic development in the Ebola affected countries of West Africa. Through this commitment, ReGrow will launch the ReGrow Marketplace to profile investment projects and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and help engage them with international investors, donors, and other partners. In addition, ReGrow will capitalize the Resilience trust with a further $3.5 million building on a $1 million funding commitment from Chevron to provide direct investment in SMEs and certain high-impact greenfield investment projects. ReGrow West Africa is a public-private partnership that that was launched in January and is a legacy initiative of the Ebola Private Sector Mobilization Group (EPSMG). The implementing partners within ReGrow include RESOLVE, GIZ, Cordaid, Chevron, the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SLIEPA), and the TAIA Peace Foundation.

ReGrows local partners will work in each of the three Ebola affected countries to help define each countrys pipeline of private sector projects and key SMEs that have been most adversely impacted by the business and economic effects of Ebola, and have the potential to benefit from ReGrow support. Once identified, ReGrow will help enable and support the recovery and development of these projects and SMEs. Specifically, ReGrow will help to restore local supply chains by working to save local entrepreneurs and SMEs from insolvency with provision of resilient business development services, project and company profiling on the ReGrow MarketPlace website, partner match-making, and for some local SMEs, direct financial infusions from the ReGrow Resilience Trust. Finally, ReGrow will revive stalled investment projects through advocacy work and encouraging international firms with an existing operational footprint in the three affected countriesparticularly those that are part of EPSMGto continue to plan and organize long-term investments in the countries.

By October 2017, ReGrow aims to support 90 SMEs with direct cash investment from ReGrow Trust and provide them with technical training and support under Cordaids Resilient Business Development Services model. In addition, ReGrow will help revive at least 15 investment projects of existing large scale enterprises that are now stalled. Finally, ReGrow will help execute at least 12 greenfield ventures.

October 2015:
- Conduct planning meeting in Freetown, Sierra Leone to formalize governing board, host agency, and establish local service provides
- Initiate fundraising and partnership challenge

November 2015:
- Launch ReGrow Sierra Leone
- Initiate SME Resilience Business Development Services program via Cordaid in Sierra Leone
- Begin project profile work with SLIEPA

January 2016:
- Conduct planning meeting in Monrovia, Liberia to formalize partnerships

February 2016:
- Launch ReGrow MarketPlace
- Profile 15 SMEs, 2 green field projects, and 3 stalled projects of existing enterprises in Sierra Leone

March 2016:
- Launch ReGrow Liberia
- Hold planning meetings in Conakry, Guinea
- Launch ReGrow Trust

May 2016:
- Launch ReGrow Guinea
- Profile at least 15 SMEs, 2 greenfield project and 3 stalled projects of existing enterprises in Liberia

June 2016 Onward:
- Continue work of SME support and project profiling, project investment readiness, and project marketing

August 2016:
- Profile at least 15 SMEs, 2 greenfield projects and 3 stalled projects of existing enterprises in Guinea
- Profile at least additional 15 SMEs, 2 greenfield projects and 3 stalled projects for both Sierra Leone and Liberia
- ReGrow Resilience Trust is fully capitalized with $4.5M with governance and management structure established for each country

November 2016:
- Profile at least additional 15 SMEs, 2 greenfield projects and 1stalled projects for both Sierra Leone and Liberia

March 2017:
- Complete work in Sierra Leone
- Demonstrate facilitation of financing/re-engagement for at least 30 SMEs, 4 greenfield ventures and 5 stalled projects of existing enterprises in Sierra Leone
- Profile at least additional 15 SMEs, 2 greenfield projects and 2 stalled projects for Guinea

June 2017:
- Complete work in Liberia
- Demonstrate facilitation of financing/re-engagement for at least 30 SMEs, 4 greenfield ventures and 5 stalled projects of existing enterprises in Liberia

October 2017:
- Complete work in Guinea
- Demonstrate facilitation of financing/re-engagement for at least 30 SMEs, 4 greenfield ventures and 5 stalled projects of existing enterprises in Guinea

Background

The 2014/15 Ebola public health crisis in West Africa has crippled the economies of the three most affected countries Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. While among the poorest countries in the world, all three were growing before the Ebola epidemic. As a result of Ebola, each is now experiencing a dramatic economic downturn that is magnifying the deprivation and morbidity of local populations. Private sector investment has dried up and business activity has largely ground to a halt, with huge losses of employment, income, and government tax revenue.

The extent of the economic crisis has also revealed the fragility of national and regional economies and has underscored the relationship between economic development and public health vulnerabilities. The cost to the three countries of shuttered businesses and curtailed investment will run as much as $1.6 billion in 2015 alone. Governments from the three countries have already seen their finances hit by over half a billion dollars in 2014, almost 5% of the countries combined GDP.

Partnership Opportunities

Once RESOLVE commences additional planning work and budget preparation with USAID, it will get a sense of what additional resources it needs to raise. RESOLVE expects that the project's budget will change somewhat, even in structure as a component of USAID's participation.

RESOLVE and its partners in ReGrow offer to review and profile private sector development projects in the Ebola affected countries, with a vision to expediting or enabling finance and/or engagement of project developers with other key implementing partners. The projects themselves may include those that are being executed by individual private sector companies (local or international), projects that involve the blending of donor and impact investment funding with pure for-profit investment funding, NGO/private sector partnerships, and/or public/private partnerships.

Progress Reports

May 2016

RESOLVE is still planning to execute the project and has done all of the organizational work. In October of 2015, RESOLVE applied to fit the program with USAID's Global Development Alliance initiative. In January 2016, USAID accepted RESOLVE's proposal and invited RESOLVE to the "co-creation" phase with them. However, RESOLVE is now subject to USAID's timeline and is are waiting on USAID to organize reviewing and planning meetings. USAID's participation in the project is certainly worthwhile as USAID will add considerable financial resources and their participation will also help to create a center of gravity for other organizations and donors to participate. For instance both UNDP and AfDB have both expressed interest in participating now that USAID is likely to be involved. So, the only thing that we are waiting upon is USAID's action to review our business plan and provide input to the business plan and then to establish a joint budget. Interestingly, in the meantime RESOLVE is developing another component to the initiative, ReGrow Housing, which will be one of the projects that RESOLVE will develop within the context of the ReGrow MarketPlace. A large private equity firm has also expressed formal interest in participating in the housing initiative of ReGrow. RESOLVEs intention is to continue to develop this new aspect of ReGrow while waiting for USAID to catch up. RESOLVE expect that our implementation schedule will be pushed back at least by 6 months or longer because of this delay.