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Recognizing and encouraging the contribution that the private sector can make to enhancing cultural diversity and facilitating,...

My question specifically is about "make to". Why is to followed by the -ing form of the verb enhance? Is to a preposition here?

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  • You need to write the full sentence because "to" could be used as a preposition following "contribution" or adverbial "to-infinitive". I am voting to put this question on hold for lack of context.
    – user140086
    Commented Jul 11, 2016 at 12:36

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The relevant phrase is "make a contribution to". This is a standard phrase, and can be followed by a clause with the verb in the "-ing" form.

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There is no component make to in this sentence.

Turning the relevant phrase into its own sentence, we get

The private sector can make a contribution to enhancing cultural diversity.

Here, contribution is a direct object of make, and to enhancing cultural diversity is a prepositional phrase that modifies contribution.

So in the original sentence, "that the private sector can make ..." is a relative clause that modifies contribution; "contribution" is the object of the relative clause; and "to enhancing cultural diversity" is a prepositional phrase modifying contribution.

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Needs commas

Here's the sentence broken down into its basic form.

Recognizing and encouraging the contribution [...] to enhancing diversity and facilitating,...

Now the "make" part of the sentence is gone. Whoever wrote that sentence should have added commas, and this confusion wouldn't have happened, I believe. Where did you find this sentence?

Recognizing and encouraging the contribution, that the private sector can make, to enhancing cultural diversity and facilitating,...

"make" and "to" are independent to each other this way.

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