Business and the private sector

UK aid is about generating opportunity and prosperity for poor people in developing countries.

Our new approach to working with the private sector is about doing more with and for private enterprise, extending this work in new areas, and doing it better.

This new approach will deliver results for poor people, including:

• better job opportunities and incomes
• more readily available and affordable finance for households and small businesses
• more accessible, better quality healthcare, schooling and basic services.

Reduce barriers, increase business

Our work with private enterprise will back interventions with the potential to transform the business environment. It will reduce the barriers, costs and risks of doing business, expand markets and trade, boost energy availability, and strengthen transport and communications.

At the same time, we'll strive to expand the business environment by stimulating private investment in places presently overlooked by commercial investors – through a revitalised CDC and through existing and new international organisations.

We believe the approach will be good for development and good for the UK. Fostering private sector growth in developing countries will help them become more attractive trading partners for the UK and better able to deal with disasters, disease and environmental degradation.

Engine of development

We are learning, and want to learn more, about how best to encourage the dynamism of private enterprise as an engine of development and poverty reduction.

We will work with the private sector through our country offices, regional teams and central offices. We want private sector thinking to become as much part of DFID's DNA as our work with charities and governments.