How do you get policymakers to listen?

Many economic and governance challenges cannot be solved without input from the private sector. The private sector has essential knowledge of what drives business growth. Yet all too often policymaking excludes private sector input. As a result, bureaucracy and corruption drive up operational costs and push entrepreneurs into the informal economy.

The private sector and civil society, however, can take concerted action to address such challenges and help open up the policy process. Strategies for Policy Reform, Volume 2: Engaging Entrepreneurs in Democratic Governance—from the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE)—explores real-world examples of successful attempts to get policymakers’ attention.

A key part of getting attention is collective action—demonstrating that sizeable and important constituencies will rally around reform. In Kyrgyzstan, for instance, the Bishkek Business Club and CIPE sought to improve the environment for entrepreneurship by launching the National Alliance of Business Associations. This alliance of 30 business groups, representing more than 2,000 companies and 80,000 entrepreneurs, presented a common front on issues of tax reform, inspections, and corporate raiding. They obtained a simplified tax reporting system that generated 40 percent savings for entrepreneurs, as well as a government decree in defense of private property.

Another way to generate support for one’s positions is to supply legislators with information that helps them make decisions. In Colombia, the Foundation for Higher Education and Development (Fedesarrollo) filled a need for independent economic analysis of legislative initiatives, which it provided through monthly policy briefs entitled Economía y Política. These briefs shared technical analyses and recommendations with legislators. A number of their recommendations were incorporated in legislation that ensured savings in natural resource management and strengthened an autonomous authority to enforce Colombia’s Competition Law.

When approaching policymakers, one should come prepared with recommended solutions to problems, not a list of complaints. CIPE observed this principle in Romania when coordinating a national business agenda for coalitions representing tourism, light manufacturing, and information technology and communications. The coalitions campaigned for specific items—such as a reduction in employee taxes and the creation of regional tourism bureaus—and for the principle of freedom of information. They saw many of their recommendations passed, producing less red tape and more jobs.

These experiences, together with other achievements and lessons, are spelled out in Strategies for Policy Reform, Volume 2.

“The Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has had a long history in working with the private sector to promote both democracy and economic prosperity. This volume distills from CIPE’s experience key practical lessons on how to implement reform on the ground, and will be invaluable to development practitioners everywhere.”
–Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University

Chapters cover democratic governance, business associations, legislative advisories, national business agendas, anti-corruption, corporate governance, the informal sector and youth. Case studies come from Afghanistan, Armenia, Belarus, Colombia, Ghana, Guatemala, Jordan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Nicaragua, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania, and Tunisia. The collection is available from the CIPE Bookstore.

Published Date: January 31, 2011