About LKDF

We’re promoting and learning from public
private development partnerships

About

LKDF

We promote industrial skills development

The Learning and Knowledge Development Facility (LKDF) is a platform that promotes industrial skills development among young people in developing economies. Working with the private sector through Public Private Development Partnerships, the LKDF supports the establishment and upgrading of local industrial training academies to help meet the labor market’s increasing demand for skilled employees, ultimately contributing to inclusive and sustainable industrial development.

The long-term success of local industrial academies that partner with the LKDF is ensured through constant monitoring of economic, environmental and social impact. UNIDO manages the facility, on behalf of the LKDF partners.

LKDF
Purpose

We exist to address the mismatch in skills produced by TVET systems and the skills that are in demand in the labor markets

Vision

To capture best practices and summarize and share lessons learned from PPDPs

Mission

To provide support and guidance to training managers and decision makers within the host country’s educational training system.

Values

To support the development of new PPDPs and ensure the Facility’s long-term success.

Faq

Frequently asked questions

About Public Private Development Partnerships (PPDP)

A growing number of industry leaders are recognizing that aligning business strategies, operations and supply chains with sustainable development outcomes is not only a social responsibility, but also increasingly a business imperative. Adopting more socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable business operations helps to mitigate risk, develop new markets, and cultivate sustainable relationships with suppliers, customers and investors. PPDPs enable the harnessing of the expertise, know-how and resources of the private sector to tackle important global industrial development issues.

There are various models of PPP, established for different reasons and across a wider range of market segments that reflect differing needs. Although there are various types of PPP, two broad categories of PPP can be identified: The institutionalized kind, which refers to all forms of joint ventures between public and private stakeholder; and contractual PPPs.

The established contractual model for PPPs is one that is setup so that the private sector partner is charged with managing and providing a service on behalf of a public authority with better efficiency and service level than would be achieved by the public body while providing a commercial gain for the private partner.

PPDPs are based on a joint approach to development projects where both the public and private partners stand to gain from the outputs of the partnership. The partners share costs, the risks, get to leverage the others expertise and achieve a desired outcome with shared costs.

A Public Private Development Partnership (PPDP) is a variation of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. In a PPDP, the public and private sectors make a joint investment in a project implemented by a third party. The development objective is to create conditions that improve the lives of people living in poverty.
About the LKDF

UNIDO, together with Sida, is a founding partner of the LKDF. The two organizations have developed a good working relationship and track record with previous partnership projects. UNIDO has a mandate to promote and accelerate sustainable industrial development in developing countries and economies in transition. UNIDO sees business partnerships as an important instrument in realizing these objectives and should logically be involved in developing this. Business partners see UNIDO’s value, amongst other examples, as the “Honest Broker” as an appropriate neutral body to facilitate the activities of the partners.

UNIDO is the implementing partner and so has the role of delivery agent for the LKDF.

No. Although there is a project development component to the LKDF, the projects that are developed will still require the financial backing from an alternate source. The LKDF would however, help to source funding for suitable projects.

A key objective of the LKDF is to disseminate the gathered knowledge for the greater public good by using face-to-face and virtual learning spaces such as meetings, publications, web portal and explanatory videos. The learning is shared in order to strengthen the existing and new PPDPs and the partnership, share with new PPDPs and partners for more efficiency and effectiveness, and to share with external organizations so their initiatives benefit from our learning.
Joining the LKDF

The reasons for the private sector involvement are several. Overall, the LKDF will offer the private partners the opportunity to improve their competitiveness and develop effective and responsible practices for doing business in developing and transitional economies. The development of local capacity and resources in developing economies present challenges that are often not within the expertise of individual companies. By working in collaboration with other private and public partners, the companies can leverage the necessary strengths and inputs from the other partners that allows for delivery in a supported framework.

The private partners contribute to the LKDF at two levels. (i) Through their direct involvement in the LKDF and (ii) Through partnering on those PPDP projects that are within the reach of the LKDF.

As partners of the LKDF the companies make contributions of professional expertise, advice and guidance when participating at a regional and global level. This includes the time and cost implications of attending meetings as well as time allocation of company experts made available to review and support the development of LKDF material. They will, where possible, provide access to learning and management resources and host meetings, workshops and study tours at company facilities.

The companies provide inputs at individual and local project level as agreed on a project by project basis. The methods and results of the involvement at this level will feed into the monitoring and evaluation system that drives the learning process.

We welcome the participation of relevant organizations and companies. Queries on involvement should be made via the contact form.