Business is the single most important factor for creating jobs and economic growth. However, for business to prosper, the right enabling environment must be in place.

Therefore, the private sector organizations representing business in Eastern and Southern Africa have joined forces in an initiative to create the ESA BMO Network, where ten African Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) have come together to unite their voices for creating a more transparent and business friendly climate in their regions.

All the countries in the Network are facing similar domestic, regional, and international challenges which create serious barriers for the development of the private sector and thereby hinder the overall social and economic progress in the region.

The shared challenges constituted the starting point for establishing the ESA BMO Network. With support from the Danish development programme, Danida, the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) took the initiative to gather the strongest BMOs from the ten countries in a regional policy Network.

This Network allows for the participants to share information and to strengthen their collective voice by collaborating on driving pressing policy issues within and between their ten respective countries, instead of working individually on the same issues.

The ESA BMO Network was launched in Nairobi in April 2008.