Report for the SEED Initiative Research Programme: Typologies for Partnerships for Sustainable Development and for Social and Environmental Enterprises

The report argues that while the SEED initiative focuses on partnerships for sustainable development, its award winners are more accurately defined as social and environmental entrepreneurs. The authors find that partnership typologies are often too ambiguous and lack specific, measurable success factors. In contrast, the field of social and environmental entrepreneurship provides detailed critical success factors (CSFs) tailored to specific enterprise types, such as 'green' products or community services. The report concludes that partnerships should be viewed as a tool for these entrepreneurs rather than their defining organizational model. It also identifies special attributes of SEED winners, including their potential for large-scale impact, complex relationship management, and the transition from overseas development assistance (ODA) to commercial revenue streams.

• The central characteristic of SEED award winners is that they are locally grounded sustainable development entrepreneurs who create for-profit enterprises based on social and environmental values to achieve a "triple bottom line" outcome.
• Partnership typologies are considered less useful for guiding SEED winners because they often rely on generic principles and lack the specific, measurable metrics necessary to assess performance.
• Social and environmental entrepreneurship provides a more informative framework for identifying critical success factors than partnership literature, shifting the view of partnerships from a defining model to a tool for creating value.
• SEED winners can be categorized into specific enterprise types with distinct success factors: 'Green' products (e.g., Ecuador, Nepal, Vietnam, Peru, SRI, Nigeria) focus on business planning and green consumer markets; 'Green' services (e.g., Brazil, Sierra Leone) emphasize target marketing and personal networking; Community services (e.g., Bolivia) require management expertise and enabling regulatory environments; and Ecosystem services management (e.g., Madagascar) depends on project champions and stakeholder agreement.
• A significant number of SEED winners are managing the transition from grant-based funding, such as Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), to sustainable commercial revenue generation.
• SEED winners are distinguished from other social enterprises by their potential for impact beyond a single community, the high complexity of their multi-sector relationships, and their nascent stage of development.

APA

Creech, H., Paas, L., & Oana, M. (2008). Report for the SEED Initiative Research Programme: Typologies for Partnerships for Sustainable Development and for Social and Environmental Enterprises. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/seed_typologies.pdf

Chicago

Creech, Heather, Leslie Paas, and Miruna Oana. Report for the SEED Initiative Research Programme: Typologies for Partnerships for Sustainable Development and for Social and Environmental Enterprises. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2008. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/seed_typologies.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Creech |first1=Heather |last2=Paas |first2=Leslie |last3=Oana |first3=Miruna |title=Report for the SEED Initiative Research Programme: Typologies for Partnerships for Sustainable Development and for Social and Environmental Enterprises |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=2008 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/seed_typologies.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{creech2008report, author = {Creech, Heather and Paas, Leslie and Oana, Miruna}, title = {{Report for the SEED Initiative Research Programme: Typologies for Partnerships for Sustainable Development and for Social and Environmental Enterprises}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2008}, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/seed_typologies.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }