27-28 November 2007, Lusaka, Zambia  Many African governments favour a robust investment climate. Within the context of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), the APRM Secretariat is working on improving the investment-climate content of Africa’s own peer review mechanism. African countries are also looking for more comparisons of investment climate assessment, country reform agendas and their impact in specific sectors.

Building on these areas, the roundtable's overall aim was to develop policy capacity building tools that will help NEPAD countries improve the investment related content of Africa’s peer review process (APRM) and to support implementation of investment climate reform policies, with a specific focus on the investment environment conditions conducive to attracting investment for development in the water and sanitation sector.

Expected outputs from the roundtable include:

• A set of tested guidelines on how to complete the investment climate content of the APRM Self-Assessment questionnaire that is available to NEPAD countries, in order to support and strengthen their capacity to implement investment climate reform; 
• Concrete suggestions on how to improve the investment climate content of the APRM Self-Assessment questionnaire;
• The development of local capacity to develop the investment climate content of a National Programme of Action (NPA) and to mobilise the resources needed to apply and follow up on the NPA;
• A first draft of guidelines, taking advantage of the new OECD Principles for Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure for the water and sanitation sector tailored to an African country context, in order to foster the mobilisation of additional and beneficial private sector involvement.

The roundtable was followed during the morning of 29 November 2007 by a half-day seminar which aimed to share Zambia’s recent experience on investment facilitation, based on the lessons learnt from good practices in Asia.

Documentation

• Agenda for the roundtable on 27-28 November [ English / français ]
• Agenda for the seminar on 29 November [ English / français ]
• Co-Chairs’ summary
• English 
• Private Sector Participation in Water and Sanitation Infrastructure: Summary of the discussions
• Keynote address: The Honourable Felix Mutati, MP, Minister for Commerce, Trade and Industry, Republic of Zambia
• Keynote address: Prof Firmino Mucavele, Executive Head, NEPAD Secretariat
• Keynote address: Bernard Kouassi, Executive Director, APR Secretariat
• Keynote address: Mario Amano, Deputy Secretary-General, OECD
• Keynote address: Siazongo D. Siakalenge, Director – Industry, Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Republic of Zambia
• Testing the draft PFI Users’ Toolkit Guidance to Zambia for the Self-Assessment Phase of the APRM process, Francis Chigunta
• Overview of challenges of the investment climate-related content of the APRM, Kojo Busia
• Mapping APRM Investment Climate Content to Policy Framework for Investment, OECD Secretariat
• Private Sector Participation in Water and Sanitation Infrastructure (preliminary draft), OECD Secretariat
• Stocktaking of the water and sanitation sector and private sector involvement in selected African countries, Céline Kauffmann and Edouard Pérard
• About the PFI Toolkit and an Example of the Policy Guidance, OECD Secretariat

Presentations

• The investment climate content of the African Peer Review Mechanism, Afeikhena Jerome, Coordinator, Economic Governance and Management, APR Secretariat
• Overview of the PFI Users’ Toolkit, Jonathan Coppel, Executive Programme Manager, Investment Division, OECD
• Applying the Principles for Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure to the water and sanitation sector, Céline Kauffmann, Economist, Investment Division, OECD
• Overview of the water and sanitation sector and private sector involvement in selected African countries, Edouard Pérard, Consultant, Investment Division, OECD
• Guarantees & risk mitigation instruments, James Winpenny, Wychwood Economic Consulting Ltd

From the NEPAD secretariat:
Mr Karim Khalil, Co-ordinator
e-mail karimk@nepad.org
Tel: +27 (11) 313 3625
Fax +27 (11) 313 3583

From the OECD secretariat:
Mr Jonathan Coppel
Executive Programme Manager
Investment Division
Tel: +33 1 45 24 14 47
E-mail: Jonathan.COPPEL@oecd.org

Mr Toru Homma
Project Manager
Investment Division
Tel: +33 1 45 24 84 48
E-mail: Toru.HOMMA@oecd.org

Ms Nana Shodu
Consultant
Investment Division
Tel: +33 1 45 24 93 88
E-mail: Nana.SHODU@oecd.org

Further reading

• Policy Framework for Investment 
• OECD Principles for Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure
• Private sector participation in the water and sanitation sector
• Overview of the NEPAD and OECD 
• OECD Risk Awareness Tool for Multinational Enterprises in Weak Governance Zones  [ English / français ]
• NEPAD www.nepad.org
• African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) www.nepad.org/aprm/
• Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in the APRM www.uneca.org/aprm
• World Bank www.worldbank.org
• World Bank Doing Business Database www.doingbusiness.org
• World Bank Public Private Dialogue www.publicprivatedialogue.org