Foundations have an important role to play as partners of public authorities. Private public partnerships are sought to create financial and operational synergies, and to maximise impact. Cooperation between governments and foundations has to be seen as a possible way to advance public policies meeting citizens' needs and strengthening civil society by sharing resources and directing their different but complementary roles towards a common objective.
Foundations play an important role as financial retailers and venture capital banks for civil society, but, above all, they are bodies of knowledge and expertise in a variety of fields, e.g. culture, science, social matters and environment. In the following some public/private joint projects and initiative are highlighted:
Transnational youth exchange
The Foundation for German Russian Youth Exchange. The initiative originates from the Agreement on German – Russian Political Cooperation in Youth Issues, providing the legal framework for the creation of the German – Russian Youth Exchange Foundation. This cooperative initiative of the German Ministry for Family Affairs, the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, and the Robert Bosch Foundation facilitates youth exchange and aims at removing bureaucratic obstacles. The Robert Bosch Stiftung expects that its support will invigorate school exchange, which cannot be financed with federal money.
Malaria prevention - cooperation with the World Health Organisation
This project, developed by the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona in the Manhiça Health Research Centre in Mozambique, and supported by Fundación BBVA, follows a successful study carried out in Tanzania. It aims to assess prophylactic use of an intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine –an affordable drug currently used and available for the treatment of malaria in Africa. The intermittent treatment is being administered to 2,000 Mozambican children during their first year of life through the WHO Expanded Programme of Immunization. Findings from these studies could lead to a recommendation from international health agencies to the governments of endemic countries to include the IPT as part of the measures taken for malaria prevention.
Children health - working with the World Bank
The Aga Khan Trust and the van Leer Foundation have joined with the World Bank to support a maternal and child health programme in Kenya.
Community development – the Community Foundation Initiative
The Community Foundation Initiative (CFI) was jointly launched in March 2003 by the World Bank and foundations. CFI explores how community foundations (CFs) could contribute to long-term sustainability of community projects. Two basic goals of the CFI are to educate World Bank staff about the concept and potential contribution of CFs to development, and to identify and develop several World Bank pilot projects in various regions of the world that would demonstrate modalities of integrating CFs in relevant World Bank operations.
The Roma Education Fund
The Roma Education Fund is a new grant-making foundation, launched at the beginning of 2005. It aims to support programmes and projects to improve Roma education outcomes, beginning in eight central and southern European countries namely, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovakia. It is a combined initiative of the World Bank, the European Commission and foundations. The EFC Minorities interest group sits on the Board of the Fund. The Council of Europe Development Bank provides office space in Paris; a programme office is located in Budapest.
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