RCG is increasingly undertaking work focused on strengthening and advancing the private sector, in ways that support marginalized groups, create opportunities for meaningful employment, better consider ways of improving performance within the informal economy, with the aim of offering pathways out of poverty.

While ‘private sector development’ is sometimes stigmatized for being overly focused on already functioning commercial enterprises and the ‘top end’ of the economy, increasing effort is being made to ensure PSD work is holistic, and able to address the needs of micro-enterprises (farmers, street traders and lower level value chain actors), as well as small and medium-sized enterprises and social enterprises. In 2019, RCG led a Review of the Australian Embassy in Timor Leste’s contribution to PSD, requiring a wide-ranging analysis of the efficacy of Australia’s overall program of assistance in supporting governance reform, an enabling environment for PSD, and opportunities for the agricultural sector to formalize and better compete against imported Indonesian goods. RCG has undertaken similar work for USAID across Africa and in the occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as an extensive landscape analysis of the Asian seafood supply chain. Currently, RCG is leading two pieces of work review performance of the ADB’s Pacific Private Sector Development Initiative.

Through engaging a diverse set of private sector actors, RCG is helping unearth opportunities to share risks and resources to achieve improved development outcomes for those who have too long sat outside the formal economy. RCG also views the private sector as an important ally in efforts to address some of the world’s most pressing issues of climate change, improved corporate standards and better employment practices.