In India, a network of women slum dwellers is collaborating with UK engineers and a French water company to improve water delivery in their communities.

In Ecuador, a consortium of European companies is working with the government and coffee farmers to ensure pesticides don't contaminate water supplies.

In South Africa, a small business owner is working with women's cooperatives and the government to test market solar technologies in rural areas.

Such stories are the type of innovative “partnership” that are the focus of a new global initiative, the Seed Initiative.

Inspiring and supporting entrepreneurial partnerships

The Seed Initiative (Supporting Entrepreneurs in Environment and Development) aims to inspire, support and build the capacity of locally-driven entrepreneurial partnerships to contribute to the delivery of the Millennium Development Goals and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

The initiative focuses on 'business as unusual' - innovative action delivering real solutions through project cooperation among small and large businesses, local and international NGOs, women's groups, labour organisations, public authorities and UN agencies, and others working in the field of sustainable development.

Through an international award scheme, intensive capacity-building activities and a research programme, the Seed Initiative will stimulate and build the capacity of entrepreneurial, nascent partnerships executing action on the ground; create a conduit for investment in partnerships; disseminate good practice and lessons-learned from successful partnerships to inspire further new partnerships; and generate evidence-based research to assist policy makers.

 

The core partners of the Seed Initiative are UNEP, UNDP and IUCN, with support from the German Federal Ministry for Environment. Collaborating organisations include Partnerships Central and the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi).

All partners are themselves innovators and authoritative proponents of partnerships that are effectively translating the ideals of sustainable development into action on the ground.

Aims and objectives

The Seed Initiative aims to:

• promote and support on-the-ground action by social entrepreneurs working in partnerships that contribute to achieving international agreements: the goals contained in the Millennium Declaration and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation;
  
• provide an incentive for investments in developing countries that contribute to sustainable development in an integrated manner and that advance collaboration among stakeholders;
  
• jump-start networking and knowledge building among all stakeholders working on sustainable development partnerships, promoting innovative good practice;
  
• capture and disseminate lessons learned from real partnership creation and examine the role and effect of an independent partnership broker in nascent partnerships;
  
• nurture a network of institutions and partnerships that build expertise in partnership management and that facilitate learning and an exchange of ideas.