Event: mesopartner Stimulating the competitiveness and private sector performance within territories

You are a practitioner in private sector development or local or regional economic development. You work in a business association, industry association, an economic development agency, firm involved in local economic development, local or regional government, an NGO or a donor agency. Your task is to promote economic development at the level of local or regional territories, where the improved performance and competitiveness of the private sector is a key factor to achieve this. Maybe you work at the national level and have to design and support local and regional initiatives. You have gone through basic training courses where you collected theoretical know-how on concepts and tools relating to value chains, clusters, or local economic development. You tried to apply them – some of them worked, others didn’t. You are looking for new insights and ways to improve the performance of local and regional economies, and you want to share and discuss your experience with practitioners from other countries.

If you feel that this describes your situation, you should consider participating in Stimulating the competitiveness and private sector performance within territories – an event by mesopartner. mesopartner is an international knowledge and training firm that specialises in territorial development in developing and transformation countries. Methods that have been developed by mesopartner include PACA to launch and sustain local economic development initiatives, Genesis to identify strategic interventions, RALIS to identify ways to improve the innovation and competitiveness of territories, and the Compass of Local Competitiveness, a performance management tool.

The location. We will hold the mesopartner event at Roode Vallei Country Lodge, Pretoria, South Africa. It combines a scenic location with proximity to sightseeing attractions and shopping opportunities.

Some of the important topics that will be discussed are:

• Various participatory approaches to diagnose the performance of industries, for instance PACA and RALIS

• How to identify, diagnose and mobilise agglomerations of industries (for instance value chain and cluster promotion)

• Approaches and obstacles to the promotion of competitiveness of industries

• Strategy development for the development of industry in turbulent times

• Innovative ways to improve the performance of sector associations, industry bodies and other supporting agencies

• Designing and launching efforts to improve the performance of industries within regions

• How to address market and government failure that are hampering the performance of sectors

• Methods to shape the public support to the development of the private sector (for instance, higher education, regional industrial policy, innovation networks, etc.)

 The objective of the training is to impart and share practical methods and tools that can be used to mobilise, diagnose and upgrade the performance and competitiveness of the private sector. In reality, this is a task that the private sector tends not to undertake on its own. Therefore attention will also be given to the development or improvement of the supporting institutions with a specific emphasis on territories. The PACA and RALIS toolkits will be used to introduce and apply practical diagnostic instruments within a proven process framework. 

A couple of themes will underline the content, namely systemic competitiveness, incremental improvement process, the importance of technological change and change management. 

We will strive to attract a diverse range of participants, both from the private sector as well as institutions or programmes that promote the improved performance of the private sector. Preference will be given to individuals with experience as this increase the knowledge sharing and networking between participants.

The training method of the event will follow the usual mesopartner style. It will be highly interactive, not primarily based on frontal presentations. We will draw on participants’ know-how, and we will stimulate exchange of experience among participants. People that have previously attended training events by mesopartner, GTZ or InWEnt on Local Economic Development, PACA, RALIS or LOCATI will benefit from this event, as it will discuss many topics at basic and advanced levels.

You will need a good working knowledge of English to participate in the event.

For any inquiries, please get in touch with us at ac@mesopartner.com