Focus Projects

The starting assumption of the BPD programme was that partnership could deliver added value to the parties involved because it would release synergies that ensure a better development impact for communities and governments, as well as benefits for business. The assumption needed testing on the ground and the programme therefore gathered practical experience through its ‘focus projects’.

There were 30 focus projects in 20 countries.

BPD Inputs to Focus Projects:

Partners in the BPD initiative proposed three types of focus projects in each Cluster:

1.   new partnerships where BPD helped to conceptualise, design and implement the project;

2.   existing partnerships that had run into problems where BPD conducted needs assessments to identify the critical issues and possible solutions and provided advice, expertise and support to ensure that projects could respond to local needs in a sustainable way; and 

3.   existing partnerships that could be scaled-up nationally and/or replicated in other countries where BPD provided the expertise, experience and support to achieve this.

Criteria for Focus Project Selection:

The following criteria were used to assist with the selection of focus projects for each BPD Cluster:

• Strategic importance: aimed at addressing key issues, knowledge gaps, or "hot" topics.
• Likelihood of success: Although much was expected to be learned from failed attempts, BPD aimed to use successful examples of partnership to persuade others. Success was measured by: sustainable impact on the ground, including planned contribution to institution-building (with local mediating/delivery mechanisms involving all three parties) and to human capacity development and business benefit.
• Engagement, or planned engagement, of all three sectors: business, civil society and government.
• Current, planned or anticipated involvement by the World Bank Country Team.
• Willingness (including by government or local authorities) for the project site to have visitors, and for reports to be widely circulated.
• Potential for replication in other regions/provinces/countries.
• Some overall geographic balance within each cluster so that projects were located on various continents, including transitional economies and less developed countries.
• Projects that might involve smaller national companies, perhaps through joint ventures.

Focus Projects by Cluster:

Natural Resources Cluster

1. Rio Tinto's Closure of Kelian Gold/Silver Mine (Kalimantan),Indonesia
2. Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria improvements to their Enivronmental Impact Assesments, Nigeria
3. BP's 'Working for Casanare', Colombia       
4. Placer Dome's Las Cristinas Gold Mine, Venezuela           
5. Integrated Coal Mining Private Limited's Sarshatali Coal Mining Project, India                
6. Konkola Copper Mines' Local Business Development Programme, Zambia
   

Water & Sanitation Cluster

1. Northumbrian's Sustainable Water and Wastewater Services in Underprivileged Areas, South Africa
2. Vivendi's and Mvula Trust's Management of Water Services in Peri-Urban Areas, South Africa
3. Enda Water Project, Dakar, Senegal
4. Thames Water's Water Supply Improvements to Marunda District, Jakarta, Indonesia
5. Hydro Conseil's Restructuring The Water Public Service in The Shanty Towns of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti
6. Lyonnaise des Eaux Innovative Water Solutions for Underprivileged Districts of Buenos Aires, Argentina
7. Lyonnaise des Eaux Developing Water Supply and Sanitation Services for Marginal Urban Populations in La Paz and El Alto, Bolivia
8. Aguas de Barcelona's Drinking Water Supply and Sewer System in El Pozón Quarter, Cartagena, Colombia 
   
   

Global Partnership for Youth Development (GPYD)

1. Ayala Co.'s Enhancing Economic & Social Opportunities for  Out-of-School Filipino Youth, the Philippines 
2.  Cisco Networking Academy Program: Preparing Students for The  Challenges & Opportunities of the Information Economy, the Philippines  
3. Shell Thailand's Agricultural Careers for Rural Youth Program, North & North-East  Thailand     
4. Global Alliance for Workers and Communities (Nike and The Gap), China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand               
5.  American Express' Travel & Tourism Programmes (TTPs), Brazil
6. "The Children's Hour", global
7. Global Youth Service Day -- promoting mentoring and service                                      
8. YouthNet International knowledge bank, global

Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP)

GRSP's activities focused around two key strategies where GRSP members felt they were able to add, and gain, considerable value by working together under the umbrella of the GRSP.

The first area was the development and fostering of road safety partnerships in target countries, mobilizing pilot and demonstration projects funded by the partners themselves, and monitoring and evaluating activities so that this approach can be improved and imitated.  GRSP actively engaged in 'focus country' activities since November 1999.

GRSP operates in a limited number of countries (the focus countries) where road safety is a problem, governments are willing to tackle the problem and there is an agreed framework - usually a National Road Safety Action Plan - within which GRSP can operate.

In the selected focus countries, GRSP then:

(i)         works with local business partners and civil society to help build a strong coalition committed to improving road safety;

(ii)         animates and encourages the local partners to work together with government to promote interventions designed to improve road safety and mitigate the consequences of road crashes;

(iii)        works with multilateral and bilateral donor organizations to help improve the effectiveness of their ongoing road safety programs;

(iv)        promotes demonstration projects (focus projects) to illustrate the effectiveness of  alternative road safety interventions and helps to broker access to donor funds to mainstream those interventions which have been shown to be effective;

(v)         monitors lessons learned and makes them available to others; and

(vi)        offers advice on emerging "good" practice and encourages others to share their knowledge with the wider road safety community.

GRSP is currently active in 10 focus countries: Ghana, South Africa, India (city of Bangalore only), Thailand, Vietnam, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Costa Rica and Brazil.  It has agreed to adopt Malaysia as a focus country as soon as resources are available.

The second area of GRSP activity focuses on training and dissemination of knowledge about road safety for developing country decision-makers and practitioners.  The GRSP knowledge base project, GRSP regional road safety courses and seminars, and dissemination of key research findings are examples of the type of added value GRSP brings to such knowledge exchange and capacity building activities.  In each of these, GRSP, with its partners, convenes relevant organizations together in order to draw on a wider variety of experience and expertise.  GRSP dissemination activities aim to:

(i)         increase awareness about GRSP, its partners and the partnership approach to road safety;

(ii)         increase uptake of the value of building a coalition of interested parties to improve governance of road safety

(iii)       increase partnering with business;

(iv)       spread good practice emerging from pilot and demonstration projects; and

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