• Organisational capacity building
• International networks

 

In addition to carrying out organisational capacity building programmes for individual BMOs, the Business Environment Unit (BE) also assists BMOs collectively on a regional scale by establishing issue-based networks. The networks consist of several BMOs from a region that have common interest in regional or international issues with relation to business environment, trade etc. The networks develop policy positions and carry out advocacy campaigns on topics of importance to the participating BMOs in order to influence regional and international stakeholders and setting the agenda. They mainly take the form of expert-to-expert meetings where the focus is on developing recommendations for the specific issues and problems.      

DIBD (BE) manages the networks and assists with expertise, drawing on the more than 500 DI experts, on various issues such as policy development, advocacy & implementation as well as on specific issues such as trade, climate, customs, tax, infrastructure, communication etc.

The advantages of working in networks are many:

• The fact of several BMOs joining forces across national boundaries brings more credibility and weight to the policy recommendations and advocacy efforts
• Working in networks permits the development of advanced and research based policy recommendations without setting in place new organisational structures or hiring new staff
• Expert-to-expert meetings ensures a large degree of knowledge sharing and exchange of experience between the participating BMOs as well as between them and DIBD

In order to ensure ownership in the networks, the BMOs alone decides which issues to work with and how they wish to deal with them. In this way, it is ensured that the networks are demand driven and that they are always relevant to the core work of the participating organisations.

DIBD is increasingly working with action/case based learning, and this also applies to the networks. Traditional teaching has been replaced with working on specific issues under the guidance of DI experts as well as external consultants. This way, there is a focus on the specific assignment and the tools and understanding required fulfilling them. This entails that the work is always relevant and in direct relation to the everyday work that the experts carry out in their own organisations.

Arab-EU Network:

The EA network consist of 15 leading BMOs from the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. The Network was launched in 2010 and consists of BMOs from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Yemen.
See more on the AE network webpage

ESA BMO Network:

Since 2008 DIBD (BE) has been managing a network with the leading BMOs from ten Southern and Eastern African countries. The network has developed common positions on 6 different national issues as well as 6 regional issues and has already achieved significant results.
See more on the ESA BMO network webpage

Current International Networks

Eastern and Southern African Business Membership Organization (ESA BMO) Network

ARAB-EU Business Facilitation Network