Programme Overview
In August 2002, Heads of State from over 104 countries faced a great challenge, as they gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa, for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD).
Poverty had deepened and environmental degradation had worsened in the decade that had passed since the Earth Summit (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992). Starting with Agenda 21, forged at the Earth Summit, governments had agreed upon a variety of treaties and commitments during the 1990s. Yet on the ground, there had been limited progress towards protecting the global environment.
What the world wanted from the Johannesburg Summit was action and results, not another set of pious commitments.
It was in this context that the WSSD emphasized determined action and implementation of commitments already made in the priority areas of water, energy, health, agriculture and bio-diversity. In a unique departure from previous United Nation conferences, the WSSD resulted in the launch of over 300 voluntary partnerships among governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), inter-governmental organizations and businesses to harness additional resources for the implementation of sustainable development. These partnerships, tied to government commitments, provided a stronger mechanism for implementation.
The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), as the largest regional commission of the United Nations, has taken the lead in following up on this new approach emerging from the WSSD to results-oriented projects for sustainable development in the Asian and Pacific region.
One such initiative is UNESCAP’s ‘Pro-Poor Public Private Partnerships’ or ‘5Ps’ project initiated in January 2003, encompassing water, energy, health and bio-diversity.
5P PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
 | Support UNESCAP member governments in strengthening their mechanisms and policies to deliver basic services, namely water, energy, health and bio-diversity, to the poor. |
| Demonstrate that the 5P concept represents a flexible solution to delivery of basic services and provides an alternative to the budgetary constraints on governments seeking to provide such services. |
WHY IS UNESCAP INVOLVED?
It is now well recognized that:
| | Limited access to basic services is a key feature of poverty in the Asian and Pacific Region. |
| The 5P approach offers an alternative to government budgetary constraints in providing basic services. | | The concept of Public Private Partnership in basic services is still relatively new in the region. |
WHAT WILL THE PROJECT DO?
| | Enhance regional understanding of the 5P concept. |
| Demonstrate that the 5P approach works in key sectors of sustainable development. | | Make available 5P models for adaptation. | | Build institutional capacities in negotiation and application of the 5P concept in the region. |
PROJECT COMPONENTS
The project consists of three tracks:
| | Identification and documentation of adaptable good practices, with focus on water, energy, health, and bio-diversity. |
| Implementation of demonstration projects that realize actual Pro-Poor Public Private Partnerships at the ground level. | | Strengthening pro-poor facilities in countries of the UNESCAP region. |
Track 1 of the project:
| | Develops guidelines for 5P good practice documentation and documents good practices in the provision of basic services to the poor, especially on access to water, energy, health, and bio-diversity. |
| Analyzes the demonstration projects conducted under Track 2 of the project. | | Documents and disseminates these good practices (and the guidelines for documenting them) and lessons learned from demonstration projects through various means, including through an easy-to-access IT-enabled storage and retrieval system. |
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Establishes and strengthens facilities and institutions in countries of the Asian and the Pacific region that can advance the documentation and dissemination of 5P good practices regionally. |
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Enhances the national capacity on institutional arrangements to finance rural electrification projects, including Public-Private Partnership projects. |
Track 2 of the project implements demonstration projects in different countries, focusing on different aspects of poverty reduction. These are projects for:
| | Developing a model of 5Ps for expanding access to water-related services for the poor in Colombo and possibly in a peri-urban area in Sri Lanka. |
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Developing renewable energy and providing income to poor households through a 5P-based mini-hydro power plant, enabling them to have access to energy in a rural area of Indonesia. |
| Demonstrating a 5P project in Thailand for improving access to health care, including access to antiretroviral drugs, through the development of an alternative source of income for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) that are in need of support. | | Demonstrating a 5P project on ex-situ conservation and preservation of bio-diversity through shared management and development of alternative resources and sources of income for the poor in Pakistan. |
Track 3 of the project establishes:
| | Institutional mechanisms and facilities in the region for technical backstopping of PPP projects and as resource centres for future country-level PPP ventures. |
| An assessment framework for 5P preparedness of countries and materials for the training of trainers. |
PROJECT EXPECTATIONS
The project will assist national and local governments and the private sector in participating countries to find mutually beneficial means of jointly supporting the delivery of basic services to the poor. Towards that end, the following are being generated:
| | A package of 5P demonstration projects; |
| Analysis of the pros and cons of the 5P experiences; | | Guidelines on documentation, adaptation and dissemination of good practices; | | Networks and facilities for further dissemination and development of 5Ps in the region. |
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