Business Plan 2007-2012

Based on the findings of the DFID-sponsored evaluation in 2006, which unequivocally found that “BPD is doing the right things and doing them well”, discussions were held by the Board to determine how the organisation should develop in the coming years.  The result was a 5-year business plan that maps out BPD’s efforts to meet demand. 

BPD has maintained its overarching mission - "to promote more effective delivery of safe water and sanitation services for poor communities in developing countries through multi-stakeholder partnership approaches". However, based on experience, our vision of systemic change has been refined; we have come to realise that the scope, purpose, structure and resource requirements of partnerships need to be more rigorously negotiated. For this to happen, partners need to create appropriate spaces for dialogue.

BPD’s primary activities remain largely unchanged, focusing on:

1. Innovative action research programmes aimed at engaging and influencing policymakers and practitioners in how different institutional arrangements can more effectively get water and sanitation services to poor people
2. Direct support to partnership projects to assist in building more effective relationships
3. Broad dissemination of tools and frameworks, to influence how the water and sanitation sector applies partnership approaches.

Given the recognition of BPD as "intimate, progressive and focused", our goal has been to maintain the spirit of the organisation. The challenge has been to combine these qualities with aspirations increase in size to meet the large demand for its support and findings. 

The Business Plan clearly lays out the context in which BPD is operating and the organisation’s strategy for contributing to the sector during 2007-12. To this end, the organisation is in the process of enhancing its capacity to deliver, by bringing on more staff, creating more of a regional emphasis, and strengthening its network of consultants familiar with its work and thus able to support BPD in delivering on its plans.