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CLIENT CASE STUDY ONE
Service: Connect/Advocacy/Internationalization
Reducing the Information Asymmetry between an African Institution and Specific Entities in the United States.
The Challenge:
Our client, the Secretary General of a prominent African regional economic community (REC), was keen to deepen the REC’s presence and relationships in the United States and Europe. Deepening relationships with strategic stakeholders like USAID and the World Bank was beneficial to opening funding relationships for the REC and an opportunity for the REC’s financial services institutions to intermediate global capital going into Africa.
The Solution:
Our team assessed the challenges the Secretary-General and the REC faced in the United States and agreed to serve as a representational office. Dr. Dennis Matanda was appointed official REC ‘representative’ and recognized as a REC staffer. Following this development, we made regular presentations to USAID and the World Bank on behalf of the REC and its financial services firms. We produced outreach materials to reduce the information asymmetry between Africa and the U.S.
Tangible Results:
First, this ongoing engagement led to the REC seeing a 47 percent growth in trade facilitation resources from USAID and the World Bank Group. Secondly, two of the three financial services institutions joined the foremost American-based organizations as board and associate members. Thirdly, the financial services firms also saw an exponential increase—over 100 percent—in interest in their products and services, with some public entities providing lines of credit and Tier II capital loans.
CLIENT CASE STUDY TWO
Service: Advisory/Internationalization
Designing an end-to-end multi-stakeholder engagement strategy to increase exports between an East Coast State in the United States and the fifty-five Member States of the African Union.
The Challenge:
Our client, a state organization mandated to increase global trade and investment exports, was eager to develop a novel trade program that could spur the state’s exports to Africa. This novel program would be designed to
(a) take advantage of the state’s progressive trade and investment regime,
(b) leverage the sizeable African diaspora population within the state, and
(c) bring together various partners and stakeholders keen to design and implement such a novel program.
The Solution:
After deep diving into the state’s challenges and opportunities, the Morgenthau team designed a program focused on Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs) and investment-grade development finance institutions. These two entities were deemed the most effective ways to cost-effectively spur exports in the short term while traditional export-enhancing avenues like trade missions were ongoing. We presented this program to various state stakeholders and garnered feedback and buy-in.
Tangible Results:
This ongoing engagement has, thus far, deepened relationships between the state and several Africa-based institutions. These institutions shall facilitate the strategic partnership between the state and trade-based groups like the COMESA Business Council.
CLIENT CASE STUDY THREE
Service: Advisory/Advocacy
Providing an African country with stakeholder engagement solutions resulted in a more profound understanding between the U.S. and the African nation.
The Challenge:
Our client, a state entity, was charged with ensuring that its socio-economic relations with the United States had not ‘soured’ because the latter was withdrawing market access provisions inherent to a long-standing trade program. The client’s request to us was that whether their country lost benefits or not, the expectation was that we would create an open-door environment where there would be constant dialogue and engagement on the issues that led to the loss of privileges.
The Solution:
Given the rapid changes within the African nation and the United States, we recommended a direct approach and meeting between the country’s Minister of Trade and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in Washington, DC. Secondly, we designed a bipartisan engagement plan for the Minister to engage with U.S.-based trade organizations. Each provided the Minister with advice on addressing the quandary between the two countries.
Tangible Results:
One of the most critical attributes of this ongoing engagement is that our program turned each stakeholder into an advocate. The African nation found that the American side was—as we predicted—willing to engage in a candid and solutions-oriented manner. Our expectation is that the African nation shall be re-integrated into the market access benefit program over the next 12-month period.