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This paper aims to investigate the nature of the public–private dialogue (PPD) initiatives and how PPDs are being used in the tourism and hospitality sector as the tool for reforming the business environment (e.g. set policy priorities, inform policy design, improve legislative proposals and incorporate feedback into regulatory implementation).

The study adapted a descriptive-qualitative method through desk research and in-depth interviews based on the explorative research design. The respondents included tourism and hospitality stakeholders from the public and private sectors in the Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam tourist destinations in Tanzania.

The findings revealed numerous PPD initiatives which various actors in the tourism value chain rely on to address their matters. While some initiatives are not regular forums, few have been institutionalized in the Tourism Act of 2008, while others have been prescribed from the global level (UNWTO). The well-known PPD platforms include the Tourism Facilitation Committee, Technical Advisory Committee to the Minister, Tanzania National Business Council (the Tourism Task Force) and Public–Private Partnership in Tourism under the Ministry. However, most of the existing platforms overlap in terms of subject matter, mandates, participants and timing. The key success stories and factors of the PPD initiatives and the associated challenges have been discussed.

The study provides insight to the conclusion that public policies that are designed through PPD are better conceived and more effectively implemented because they result from mutual understanding between government and the business community. This knowledge is important to the least developed countries (LDCs), like Tanzania, as research has shown that stronger and more constructive dialogue between government and the private sector leads to better business environment, and countries with better business environments grow faster, attract more investment and reduce poverty more than the opposite.

Although several PPD initiatives are taking place in the tourism sector in most developing countries, little about them has been documented in the tourism literature. Hence, this study, which focuses on Tanzania, aims to fill this knowledge gap.

The purpose of this paper is to review the attempts to describe the features and characteristics of business associations in Tanzania which are aiming to influence public policy. It concludes that those attempts, whilst thought provoking, do not go far enough to be of real use to practitioners and offers an improved model.

This paper uses empirical evidence, gathered from interviews with business associations, supplemented by reviewing their research reports and policy position papers and cross referenced through interviews with public officials.

Activities and approaches of successful business associations are described and used to draw out characteristics which might enable associations to be categorised in one of four development stages based on their approach to influencing public policy.

The new model is conceptual and work is now required to assess its validity.

Donors, in their design of advocacy support programmes, already focus support on associations in one or two stages of development. An improved model will make it easier for them, and practitioners, to categorise business associations. Importantly, it will provide indicators for how business associations are expected to improve as a result of the support that they are offered and thus to assess the success of the support programme.

There has been little research and little discussion about the features and characteristics of business associations that might lead to success in influencing public policy and thus in improving the enabling environment. This paper contributes to filling that gap.

The Egyptian banking sector has acted as an arena for multiple alliances, some of which bred crony capitalism and others acted as growth alliances. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of private sector advocacy in the Egyptian banking sector on macroeconomic performance, with the prime aim of designing an Egyptian-centric roadmap outlining precepts of good advocacy between bankers, policymakers and businesses.

The study uses a two-stage model. In the first stage an advocacy construct is developed using confirmatory factor analysis. In the second stage the relationship between advocacy and macroeconomic growth is measured by running a set of parsimonious regressions.

The empirical results show a strong relationship between advocacy and growth, albeit not on inflation rates, suggesting that an innovative set of public policy instruments is needed to promote private advocacy efforts and to institutionalise private-public partnerships. This is an innately pressing mission for the new government to mitigate the impact of the double-digit inflation that has prevailed since the Triple-F – food, fuel and finance – Crisis of 2006.

The ousted Egyptian government failed to protect its citizens from crony alliances and corruption, be it abuse of public resources or unfair access to bank credit. Hence, the prime aim is to design a future roadmap for the endorsement of effective growth alliances between businesses, bankers and policymakers. The recommendations proposed by this study would prove helpful to future public policymakers in the fulfilment of the macroeconomic aspirations of the Egyptian society as well as to other emerging and developing nations that share similar problems.

The research addresses how reforms can be designed in an egalitarian fashion to direct credit to growth enhancing and job-generating sectors since a prompt treatment of these problems at their roots is apt to minimise the probabilities of future social turmoil. This is apt to assist the Egyptian people to transition to a truly democratic society and to convert street rebellions into inclusive institutional activism.

This paper adds to the literature a measurable construct gauging the relationship between advocacy in the banking sector and growth. Another contribution is the set of policies proposed to institutionalise rightful advocacy efforts.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of the regulatory framework on the competitiveness of the dairy sector of Tanzania. More precisely, it attempts to identify the main regulations governing the dairy industry and examines areas in which they overlap. The paper explores the effect of the regulatory framework on the business enterprises operating in the sector and highlights ongoing initiatives for harmonisation of the regulations affecting the dairy sector.

The study that culminated in the paper was qualitative in nature, being based on case studies of two enterprises operating in the dairy industry, secondary data, in-depth discussions with industry stakeholders through personal interviews and focus group discussions. The paper also draws on observations made of the advocacy project that is going on to review regulations in the dairy sector.

The dairy sector in Tanzania is facing significant regulatory challenges, leading to the high cost of doing business. The main regulatory burdens facing the sector are: multiple inspections of premises, multiple testing of products, multiplicity of licences for premises and products, and the use of regulations as a source of revenue. Bureaucratic roadblocks add costs to businesses and reduce the competitiveness of products and services, as well as the potential for business expansion and job creation. While the private sector appears to succeed in creating awareness of the issue, it has not yet succeeded in pressurising the government to take action to bring about policy change.

The findings of the paper will inform policy makers and the private sector on how the regulations affect the competitiveness of the dairy industry. The paper will also aid advocacy initiatives by private sector organisations by providing empirical evidence concerning the damaging effect of the regulatory framework and will contribute some ideas on how to carry forward the ongoing dialogue between the private and public sector.

The paper fills the gap resulting from the lack of empirical evidence regarding the impact of the regulatory framework on the competitiveness of the private sector in the context of a developing economy. It demonstrates how systematic research on advocacy issues raised by the private sector could be used to generate evidence that informs and motivates policy change. The paper also applies the theory of regulation to a specific industry to show how regulatory reforms could be attained.

This chapter attempts to untangle the complex arena of private sector engagement in education by discussing the definitional challenges associated with understanding the non-state sector and by introducing some conceptual frameworks employed in research on private education. A thematic review of research from the field of Comparative International Education is provided to give the reader an understanding of the diversity that characterizes private involvement as well as the interconnectedness of private actors, specifically drawing attention to findings that grapple with equity implications. The chapter concludes with some suggestions for developing a framework for research via posing questions that ought to be asked when designing, conducting and analyzing findings from studies into private sector engagement in education.

As cities choose entrepreneurial strategies to lure the mobile corporate service sector and its professional workforce, they also present more forbidding faces to the working class and poor. Scholars and activists have pointed to the passage of public conduct laws as evidence of how modern cities signal to the poor that their downtown cores are reserved for the privileged classes. Yet, even as scholars and advocates attest to the growing “meanness” of American cities, their reports have also routinely showcased cities that develop alternatives to criminalization. This chapter presents data from a historical case study of homeless politics in Philadelphia to shed light on the complex local dynamics undergirding or challenging the modern urban phenomena of “anti-homeless” legislation. Though a pro-development paradigm has slowly transformed Philadelphia since the early 1990s, the local business community has been consistently unsuccessful in its attempts to have new public conduct legislation passed or to have existing laws stringently enforced. Urban regime theory helps explain how a network of local homeless service provider and advocacy organizations has been able to use collaborative strategies to effectively shape the politics and policies of street regulation in the city.