Unlocking social impact: the role of consultants and public-private partnerships in international development
- Zahra Henry
- Jan 29
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 8
The United Nations has renewed the International Decade for People of African Descent (2025–2034) with a continued focus on recognition, justice, and development (UN, 2024). This initiative seeks to advance human rights, combat racial discrimination, and promote economic and social empowerment. It also signals an urgent reminder that inclusive development cannot be achieved without intentionally addressing the structural inequities that affect Afro-descendant communities worldwide.
For governments, NGOs, academic institutions, and private sector actors, the renewed Decade is both a challenge and an opportunity. It requires collaboration across sectors to ensure that Afro-descendant communities gain not just visibility, but also tangible opportunities for growth, participation, and leadership.
This is where public-private partnerships (PPPs) become critical. By combining resources, expertise, and influence, PPPs are powerful vehicles for driving systemic change. And in this ecosystem, consultants specializing in international development, social impact strategy, and stakeholder management serve as catalysts—helping businesses and organizations implement partnerships that are both impactful and sustainable.
At ZLH Careers, our work in culture consulting, corporate education, and community engagement continues to demonstrate how consulting firms can bridge the gap between public goals, private commitments, and community needs.
From Policy to Action: How Consultants Catalyse Partnerships
Public-private partnerships are complex undertakings. They require strategic coordination, interdisciplinary collaboration, and knowledge exchange—all areas where consultants add value. Consultants are often the neutral facilitators who help align stakeholders with different priorities and ensure that initiatives remain inclusive and measurable.
Whether it is organizing major forums, structuring policy dialogues, or managing multi-stakeholder collaborations, consultants help translate policy into action. They provide the frameworks and processes that keep projects accountable and results-driven.
By leveraging expertise in program design and community engagement, consultants like ZLH Careers ensure that PPPs go beyond symbolic gestures to deliver real-world impact.
Case Study: “The Maroons of Jamaica – Our Legacies, Telling Our Own Truths”
A recent example of this work was ZLH Careers’ role as Co-Curator and Rapporteur for the symposium “The Maroons of Jamaica: Our Legacies, Telling Our Own Truths,” held on January 9, 2025, at The University of the West Indies Regional Headquarters in Kingston.
The event was hosted alongside the annual January 6 Accompong Maroon Festival, a celebration of the resilience and sovereignty of the Maroon people. With participation from Maroon leaders, policy representatives, academics, and development partners, the symposium created space for critical dialogue on sovereignty, identity, and reparatory justice (CARICOM, 2024).
This gathering exemplified the role consultants can play in creating platforms that center marginalized voices while also connecting them to policy and investment frameworks.
Identity: Centering the Voices of Afro-Descendant Communities
Identity is fundamental to sustainable development. The Maroons of Jamaica, one of the first Afro-descendant groups to achieve sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere through the 1738 Treaty, continue to symbolize resilience, leadership, and cultural empowerment (UWI, 2024). Yet, despite this legacy, their contributions risk being underrepresented in mainstream policy discussions.
Consultants help close this gap by designing and facilitating spaces where community leaders and policymakers engage directly. For ZLH Careers, this meant ensuring that the symposium moved beyond symbolic recognition of the Maroons’ history to actionable steps for advancing economic opportunities, policy reform, and sustainable partnerships.
Lifelong Learning: Bridging Knowledge Gaps Through Collaboration
The symposium was not only about honoring the past—it was a knowledge-sharing platform that addressed current and future development opportunities. Academic experts, government officials, and business leaders explored how the Maroons’ legacy connects to Jamaica’s ongoing constitutional reform and the wider reparatory justice movement (CARICOM Reparations Commission, 2024).
ZLH Careers contributed through program design and stakeholder engagement, ensuring the sessions were value-driven and solution-oriented. By curating roundtables, panel discussions, and networking opportunities, we helped participants translate historical reflection into strategic dialogue on policy frameworks, investment strategies, and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
This approach highlighted how consultants can transform knowledge-sharing events into catalysts for development programs, ensuring that discussions are not left at theory but move toward concrete next steps.
Collaboration: Building Stronger Networks
One of the biggest challenges in social impact work is ensuring that all relevant stakeholders are actively engaged. Too often, conversations are siloed within academia, government, or community spaces.
The Maroon symposium succeeded precisely because it was multi-sectoral. It brought together:
The University of the West Indies,
The CARICOM Reparations Commission,
The CARICOM Secretariat,
Private sector leaders, and
Grassroots community advocates.
This diverse mix meant that the conversation extended beyond theory and policy, into real-world collaborations. When businesses, cultural institutions, and communities share the same table, they build trust, transparency, and long-term investment.
For consultants, the task is to design and manage these interactions so that partnerships are equitable and future-focused.
Global Citizenship: Linking Local to Global
The issues raised at the Maroon symposium are not just Jamaican—they are global. From the recognition of African burial grounds by UNESCO to international discussions on reparatory justice, Afro-descendant communities are part of a wider global movement for equity and inclusion (UNESCO, 2024).
As rapporteur and facilitator, ZLH Careers helped connect these local conversations to international development frameworks, ensuring that stakeholders understood the global implications of their work. By linking community leaders with international organizations, funding bodies, and corporate partners, we amplified local voices on a global stage.
This cross-border collaboration is essential. It ensures that policy advocacy and social impact initiatives receive not only attention but also the financial and institutional backing needed for sustainability.
Why Public-Private Partnerships Need Consultants
The success of the Maroon symposium illustrates why consultants are integral to advancing PPPs. Some of the key contributions include:
Strategic Planning & Program Design: Aligning development projects with policy goals, CSR commitments, and community priorities.
Stakeholder Engagement & Relationship Management: Building trust and facilitating collaboration between governments, businesses, NGOs, and communities.
Facilitation of Knowledge Exchange: Structuring impactful events, workshops, and forums that encourage learning and action.
Project Execution & Impact Assessment: Ensuring initiatives are implemented effectively and deliver measurable outcomes aligned with ESG standards.
By providing these services, consultants ensure that PPPs are not only well-structured but also responsive, inclusive, and accountable.
Strengthening Partnerships for Sustainable Growth
As the second International Decade for People of African Descent unfolds, organizations must move beyond statements of solidarity. They must actively engage in well-managed, results-driven partnerships that create measurable benefits for Afro-descendant communities.
Consultants bring the expertise needed to align vision with practice. They ensure that initiatives are designed strategically, executed effectively, and assessed rigorously. More importantly, they help ensure that partnerships remain centered on the communities they serve.
At ZLH Careers, we are proud to contribute to this work by bridging the worlds of business, policy, and community. Our mission is to ensure that social impact is not only aspirational but actionable.
The renewal of the International Decade for People of African Descent challenges us all to think critically about equity, justice, and inclusive growth. For consultants, it is a call to action—to design, facilitate, and manage partnerships that truly empower Afro-descendant communities.
The Maroons of Jamaica Symposium demonstrated how history, culture, and policy can converge to create meaningful dialogue and concrete pathways for development. It also showed how consultants play a vital role in ensuring that such initiatives lead to lasting impact.
As organizations across sectors look to contribute to this global agenda, the question is not whether they should act, but how. And the answer lies in partnerships—carefully structured, strategically managed, and grounded in community needs.
Do you have a development project that requires strategic programme design and execution? Book a complementary business consulting call with ZLH Careers, let’s create meaningful impact together.
References
CARICOM (2024). Reparations and Development Frameworks.
CARICOM Reparations Commission (2024). Policy and Justice Initiatives.
UNESCO (2024). African Heritage Recognition.
UWI (2024). Historical Legacies of the Maroons.
United Nations (2024). International Decade for People of African Descent.
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