Shell Foundation
The Shell Foundation believes that only by working in partnership with others can sustainable solutions be found to many of the long-term social and environmental issues in which the energy industry has a particular role and responsibility.
No single organisation - including the Shell Foundation - has the necessary resources or capabilities to do this alone. Increasingly, the Foundation facilitates the establishment of coalitions between appropriate groups to solve specific sustainability challenges.
Dynamic partnerships, in which all groups are empowered and contribute their own time and resources, help ensure from the outset that everyone involved has a vested interest in achieving success. The Foundation attaches great priority to working with local organisations, as this means solutions are most likely to be tailored to local conditions.
Convening power
Where appropriate, we also draw upon our unique links with the Shell Group to harness the knowledge, leverage and convening power of Shell companies in ways that add real and transparent value to achieving the charitable objectives of the Shell Foundation.
Our strategy has shifted from supporting projects proposed by individual organisations towards catalysing innovative partnerships with a wider range of organisations - including governments, businesses, NGOs, or donor organisations - that are best placed to solve specific sustainability challenges.
The EMBARQT initiative is a classic example of this. The Foundation realised at an early stage that supporting individual projects implemented by any one organisation was never going to even dent the transport problems faced by cities in developing countries.
Dynamic partnerships
Rather, it was necessary to facilitate engagement between city government and a host of other stakeholders if these problems were to be solved. In Mexico City, the Foundation used its convening power to assemble all local stakeholders together.
Our credibility, together with that of our major NGO partner - the World Resources Institute - guaranteed the sincerity of those involved. Finally, we drew on our business acumen and project design experience to help the local stakeholders agree a robust process capable of finding appropriate solutions to deliver real results.
Local actors
Similarly, in Uganda and South Africa we have facilitated the creation of several innovative partnerships that assist small local businesses to enter the energy services market in ways that serve the needs of the poor and which are financially viable.
Working with local Financial Institutions (FIs) and other organisations, we have created partnerships that provide pre-investment business assistance, as well as risk capital at local commercial rates. Local Shell companies provide highly valued no-cost support, including provision of technical training to FIs, marketing the funds through retail networks, assisting in the identification of eligible clients, and offering mentoring support to investees.
The Uganda Energy Fund, a partnership with Shell Uganda and Dfcu Leasing (a subsidiary of Development Finance Company of Uganda Limited), has proved enormously successful since its launch in January 2003.
Financial viability and development returns
These investment partnerships, as well as other initiatives supported by the Shell Foundation, demonstrate how our close links to Shell can be used to create new partnerships that realise verifiable social and financial gains. And they prove that with the right partners and business-centred approaches, investing in pro-poor markets can be developmentally sound as well as profitable.
Finding commonality between diverse groups of stakeholders will always be a challenge: it takes time to agree on a shared vision and the required solutions. Getting people to work together in partnership takes commitment and energy.
Which is why the Foundation believes that its resources and unique links to the Shell Group can be used most effectively in facilitating the creation and operation of dynamic partnerships that tackle sustainability challenges in which the energy industry has a particular role and responsibility.
