Fact Sheet
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC
August 22, 2006

Purpose of Initiative:
The Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development (SEED) Initiative, established at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development, promotes the important contributions local entrepreneurial initiatives and partnerships are making towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. To achieve this objective, the Initiative:

• Advances the partnership paradigm, through engagement at international fora as well as through the Initiative's biennial global SEED Award (a competitive award scheme designed to publically recognize and highlight the most worthy partnerships), and publications;
• Supports nascent partnerships with targeted services for SEED Award winners to help them scale up and;
• Enhances technical knowledge/understanding of how partnerships function through research activities and by making lessons learned available to policy makers and partnership practitioners.

Partners:
Governments: Germany (Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety), Netherlands (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), South Africa (Department of Science and Technology), United Kingdom (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), and the United States Government.
International Organizations: The World Conservation Union (IUCN); UN Environment Program; UN Development Program; and the UN Global Compact
Private Sector: Swiss Re and Global Giving.

Targets:
Advance the Partnership Paradigm

• Demonstrate the important contributions partnerships are making to help accomplish the MDGs at major international events (e.g., UN Commission on Sustainable Development, future International Fora on Sustainable Development Partnerships, etc.); and
• Conduct a biennial global partnership award process, which includes an international search for the most promising entrepreneurial initiatives and partnerships.

Support Nascent Partnerships

• Provide SEED winners with targeted capacity-building support services for 12 months that are designed to assist each partnership in implementing its goals. This effort includes development and implementation of a strategic, targeted partnership support plan for each of the Seed Award Winning Partnerships in collaboration with each of the Winning Partnerships, local stakeholders and Seed partners through a participatory workshop and thorough needs analysis;
• Conduct a minimum of three regular assessments during the period of support to assess each partnership's progress and next steps based on each initiative's Partnership Support Plan; and
• Highlight the progress each of the winning partnerships via the Internet four times per year, other publications and at a minimum of two international events per cycle to demonstrate the ability of locally-implemented partnerships to contribute to the Millennium Development Goals and the goals in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation.

Enhance Technical Knowledge/Understanding of How Partnerships Function

• Conduct research and publish a biennial "SEED Initiative Partnership Report," (2006, 2008, etc.); and
• Expand collaboration with private sector and civil society organizations to increase policy-makers' and partnership practioners' understanding of partnerships.

I. Advancing the Partnership Paradigm

Over the last two years at international fora, SEED representatives have highlighted the impact entrepreneurial initiatives and partnerships are making to deliver needed services and make progress towards the MDGs. Examples include:

• 2^nd International Forum on Sustainable Development Partnerships in Morocco (2005): Through a partnership marketplace and in thematic discussions SEED representatives profiled several case studies of successful partnerships, including the Agua para Todos/Water for All Partnership in Bolivia. This partnership demonstrates how local entrepreneurs, civil society and local governments are working together provide access to water in an underserved population and contribute towards the Millennium Development Goal of halving by 2015 the number of people without access to fresh drinking water; and 
• May 2006 UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD): SEED provided on-the-ground examples of partnerships to government policy-makers as well as representatives from civil society and the private sector. This included the presentation of Cows to Kilowatts, a Nigerian partnership that is developing new technology to transform abattoir waste into cooking gas, thus simultaneously preventing environmental degradation and providing a cheap and clean source of energy.

The initiative's 2004 call for proposals for the first biennial SEED Awards resulted in over 1,200 organizations from sixty-six different countries submitting 260 partnership proposals. Over 90% of the proposals focused on developing countries. Two-thirds of the submissions addressed water, energy, health, and agriculture, while the remaining one-third represented diverse areas such as eco-tourism, recycling, cleaner production, and the empowerment of women. SEED finalists were selected in early October 2004, and the inaugural class of SEED winners was announced during the 13^th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

II. Supporting Nascent Partnerships

From May 2005 through August 2006, the fiveaward winners received partnership capacity development services which ranged from a partnership broker based in their community who guided the nascent partnership, to the provision of technical assistance (e.g., business support and financial planning), to opportunity building through leveraging the networks of SEED partners. The partnership's accomplishments, with help from SEED, include:

• Madagascar's Partnership for Community-Run Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), has implemented a protected area that allows marine stocks to replenish and diversify. Results of the program include a new national law on no-take zones, additional communities requesting that the protected area be expanded to create a network of MPAs, both of which strengthen the foundation for future eco-tourism efforts in the country
  
• Bolivia'sAgua para Todos/Water for All partnership, designed to provide households in Cochabamba's southern section not yet connected to main water pipelines with access to potable water at an affordable price, has provided 1,000 households with improved water quality at lower prices. The partnership is planning to supply 85,000 additional people with water as well as developing a sewerage system;
  
• Nigeria's Cows to Kilowatts partnership, designed to create a source of domestic energy, abate water pollution and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by operating on run-offs from one of Nigeria's largest slaughterhouses, has secured almost full funding for the creation of a wastewater treatment and biogas production plant. Nigeria's Ministry of the Environment has included the project in its National Environmental Sanitation Policy and is planning on creating a second pilot plant. If the pilots prove successful, the plants will be replicated across Nigeria.
  
• In Nepal local communities are putting indigenous berries into businesses. Through the harvesting and processing of the native Seabuckthorn plant for cosmetic and medicinal use, this initiative will combat land degradation and secure income generation. The partnership is now training local communities and other Nepali initiatives are replicating the partnership's model to scale up their own efforts. The partnership's next steps include developing international markets for seabuckthorn products; and
  
• In 40 countries, including Cambodia and Sri Lanka, a novel method of growing environmentally friendly indigenous rice, called the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is growing exponentially. Through the Global Partnership for Marketing SRI Indigenous Rice, rice yield is increased while water consumption and agrochemical input are reduced. SEED has provided expertise and crucial connections to advance the partnership's international marketing goals.

III. Increasing the understanding of partnerships

To promote the partnership paradigm and to enhance technical knowledge and understanding of how partnerships function, in April 2005 the Initiative in collaboration with Columbia University, launched an international network to conduct multistakeholder partnership research. The network, coordinated by GPPI, now contains 20 institutional members, and is exploring the challenges partnerships face in replication, adaptation and scaling up. Network partners intend to presents their findings during the sixteenth session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (May 2007 in New York.)

In May 2006, the Initiative held its first SEED Forum designed to enable partnership practioners, partnership winners from the SEED Initiative, the World Bank's 2006 Development Marketplace and the World Business Awards, as well as policy makers, to discuss their own experiences, and opportunities for collaborating. The Forum also provided the venue for Seed to release its first Partnership Report which focuses on the benefits and challenges of local ownership, the complexities of mixed financing models of partnerships, and business management skills in partnerships.

Next Steps:
The call for submissions to the SEED Awards 2006/7 was announced in May 2006, and proposals are due by October 15, 2006. The application form is available at www.seedinit.org. Finalists will be announced in late 2006 with the winners announced in May 2007.

The SEED Initiative is also involved in the preparations for the proposed 3^rd International Forum on Partnerships, to be held in 2007. In addition the SEED Initiative is working closely with the "Friends of the Forum" group of governments, civil society and the private sector to help shape the agenda, manage the Forum's preparatory process, and implement outcomes.

Resources: To date, SEED partners have invested approximately one million dollars (USD). In addition to financial support, each of the partners has provided major in-kind contributions.

Primary Points of Contact: The SEED Secretariat is hosted by IUCN in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN: Dr. Gabriel Lopez, Director - Global Strategies (Phone: +41 22 999 0250; E-Mail: gabriel.lopez@iucn.org). U.S. Department of State: Lori Brutten (Phone: 202-647-4758; E-mail: bruttenlb@state.gov)

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