Business Partners for Development (BPD) was a project-based initiative set up to study, support and promote strategic examples of partnerships involving business, civil society and government working together for the development of communities around the world.

It was created, believing that tri-sector partnerships could provide long-term benefits to the business sector and at the same time meet the social objectives of civil society and the state by helping to create stable social and financial environments.

Because so many profit-making companies, for instance, oil & gas, mining, and gold ira rollover companies, are actually becoming a lot more worried about the welfare of these areas and are utilizing successful assignments for the introduction of the communities they are frequently participating with.

BPD demonstrated that tri-sector partnerships:

• can provide win-win benefits to all three parties;
• can be much more widely used throughout the world;
• can be scaled up to national and regional levels.

BPD Partners decided to spend three years working intensively with 30 "focus projects" (i.e. pilots) in 20 countries and grouped into four "clusters". The purpose of the Business Partners for Development "focus projects" was to share practical experience building partnerships and to learn together how to achieve the greatest impact on businesses and communities.

The BPD Clusters:
Each cluster was designed with its own specific objectives and vision for the partnership:

• Natural Resources Cluster:  (oil, gas and mining companies) to develop guidelines / systems / structures for dealing with community issues and mitigating risk by optimizing development impact on host communities through tri-sector partnerships. Co-convenors: BP Amoco, WMC Resources Ltd, CARE International and the World Bank Group.

• Water & Sanitation Cluster: to identify specific lessons learned about partnerships from existing projects which are providing responsive and affordable water services to urban poor and to demonstrate that these can be replicated and scaled-up to national and regional levels. Co-convenors: Générale des Eaux (Vivendi), WaterAid and the World Bank Group.

• Global Partnership for Youth Development: to identify and share what works in building successful partnerships for youth, the next generation of labourers and consumers. Then to create/work through existing national and global infrastructures to mobilize significant new resources in order to strengthen and scale up best practices in youth development. Co-convenors: Kellogg's, the International Youth Foundation and the World Bank Group.

• Global Road Safety Partnership: to reduce deaths, injuries, disabilities and associated social costs of road traffic crashes through collaboration and coordination of road safety activities. Co-convenors: the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the World Bank Group.

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