USAID/Zambia Private Sector Landscape Assessment

The assessment aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the private sector's role in Zambia and its potential for collaboration with USAID. Key findings from the assessment indicate that the private sector sees USAID playing a crucial role in fostering public-private dialogue, connecting the dots between different stakeholders, and leveraging corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments. The private sector also emphasizes the importance of mitigating investment risk and leveraging partners' networks to enhance reach to beneficiaries. In the agriculture sector, the assessment identifies three priority opportunities for PSE: expanding demand for certified legume seeds, de-risking and supporting investment in agriculture technology, and expanding investment in processing and export of agriculture products. These opportunities are expected to improve agricultural productivity, increase income for farmers, and enhance food security in Zambia. In the biodiversity and conservation sector, the assessment highlights four priority opportunities for PSE: improving the investment and enabling environment, expanding the use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) within national parks and game management areas, strengthening collaboration to leverage tourism enterprise investments in communities, and partnering to enhance workforce skills in tourism. The assessment also identifies priority opportunities for PSE in the education sector, including engaging corporate partners investing in education, collaborating with the Ministry of General Education and ICT partners to mobilize technology in schools, collaborating with media outlets to reach students and parents outside of the classroom, and fostering industry engagement in education to address workforce mismatch. In the democracy and governance sector, the assessment highlights three priority opportunities for PSE: engaging the private sector to promote good governance, enhancing the Zambia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (ZEITI) as an accountability tool, and fostering private resource mobilization at the local level. Finally, the assessment identifies priority opportunities for PSE in the health sector, including fostering public-private dialogue and knowledge exchange, engaging corporate health partners investing in workplace and community health services, and partnering to build human resources in health. The assessment concludes by emphasizing the need for USAID/Zambia staff to play a key role in implementing the identified PSE opportunities and ensuring that the private sector is engaged in a meaningful way to achieve development outcomes in Zambia.