Joint Venture Commercial Estates (JVCEs) are clusters of complementary businesses and other institutions. Similar to industrial parks, they are owned jointly by African and foreign investors. We use the phrase "commercial estate" because the businesses involved are not necessarily industrial (agricultural enterprises fit in quite well), and the word "park" is so often associated with wildlife reserves in Africa that we decided to avoid it altogether. The combination of expertise and experience that results from an equal partnership between Africans and foreigners gives the JVCE the best of both worlds: knowledge of local resources, laws, and customs combined with technological and business savvy from abroad leads to astute planing and confident management. Businesses clustered in any JVCE are selected for their ability to further each other's goals and for the demand in the local community for their products and services. The typical JVCE also includes social services such as health care and education for workers and their families. Thus it becomes a community center for business and social services that relies on its own profits for sustainability. This business model addresses problems that traditionally curb the growth of small business in Africa:

• Vast distances, poor transport infrastructure, and high fuel costs
• Poor health, education, and social services near production sites
• Lack of local business planning and management capacities
• Lack of local ownership and control, and therefore lack of community support
• Little access to mainstream finance

Each JVCE is a mini-ecosystem. The first commercial enterprise therein is like the hardy tree or shrub that takes root in a wasteland. If it survives, it enriches the immediate environment and creates conditions in which compatible species can also sprout. When a cluster of thriving plants achieves a certain critical mass, it attracts animals who take advantage of the improved habitat. Similarly, a thriving JVCE will attract businesses and residents who want to live near supplies of commercial products and services or who appreciate the improvements in local utilities and roads that the JVCE - with its increasing economic clout - has wrested from traditionally indifferent officials.

In a way this process mimics the rise of a city. A good seaport, riverbank, or rail station is often the seed that grows into a sprawling megalopolis. With unplanned growth, some residents make out like bandits, others simply congregate in the slums and hope to glean a living from the scraps. WILMA's JVCE strategy places a border around the cluster of businesses, and the planning requirements make sure that only those with a plausible chance of success gain access, and the ownership structure promotes fair and reasonable business practices.

The JVCEs, if properly dispersed, will eventually enrich the area surround each until these areas begin to merge. In effect a JVCE begins as a seed, grows into a thicket, and eventually becomes an oasis in a developmental desert. Dispersing many modest JVCEs rather than one big industrial center ensures that the notorious drawbacks of the unplanned and overpopulated big city - slums, overcrowding, unemployment, crime - are supplanted by distributed wealth-generating systems. It also appeals to traditional values: longtime residents don't feel compelled to leave their home regions even when the best prospects for education and employment may be elsewhere. Development can come to the people, not the other way around.

• WILMA-JVCE.zip (23.1Mb)
• WILMA-JVCE2.zip (51.7Mb)