• promote the concept of corporate-community partnerships to companies, and

• help the companies and communities make these partnerships work in practice through helping to bring together appropriate partners, facilitating corporate-community consultation and project planning, providing technical assistance and co-ordinating with local government agencies and other NGO partners.

Most projects include income-generating activities – usually agricultural, cottage industries or small-scale enterprises which in some cases act as suppliers for the supporting company. Many of the projects also have a community development dimension, which can range from the establishment of small loan funds, to education support, vocational and computer training, environmental projects and local infrastructure development. The following three examples illustrate the variety:

• One of the largest contributors to TBIRD has been PTT Exploration and Production – a division of Thailand’s petroleum authority. In 1995 it gave US$1 million to set up an endowment capital fund for TBIRD. It has also launched a landmark programme to implement TBIRD projects in 36 villages. These projects will include components such as: a scholarship endowment to enable rural students to gain access to tertiary education, based on the condition that they return to work for the villages when they have finished their studies; construction of community development centres; a school lunch programme where food is grown by teachers, students and parents; work to improve rice yields and production methods, in co-ordination with the International Rice Research Institute; an irrigation programme in several villages; and a loan fund for housewives to help finance their local silk production activities.

• The Bata Shoe Company joined TBIRD in 1990 and its approach was to build a shoe factory in Buri Ram province. From small beginnings with a nucleus of five women, who Bata trained intensively in Bangkok not only to produce shoes, but also to manage the production process and to train and supervise others, Bata has subsequently set up co-operatively owned factories in three other villages. It owns and runs a training factory in the area, but the co-operatives are owned and 

• Nakornthon Bank, one of the smallest commercial banks in Thailand, joined TBIRD in 1991. After consultations with the villagers of Ban Hua Krok, the Nakornthon task team have helped to support training and study tours to other villages and agricultural institutes; made sure that specialists from government research centres make follow-up visits; funded extra training where needed; helped to set up a revolving loan fund for the villagers; and made regular visits to the village to explain basic concepts of money management, marketing, bookkeeping and other business skills.

• In 1995 the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) agreed to fund a one year Australian-Thai Business Initiative in Rural Development (RooBIRD) aimed at getting the many Australian companies with investments in Thailand mobilised to support the programme. This approach has interesting implications for the other bilateral donor agencies operating in the country, where their national companies have a presence.

• Many other inspiring examples exist: 3M in Thailand has established a company task force which is working with a group of villagers in the Buri Ram province to improve the production of silk – using the skills of an agricultural consultant – and the marketing of the silk products – using the expertise of 3M staff; Bristol-Myers Squibb have helped villagers to access the skills and resources they needed to improve agricultural techniques and to set up a “vegetable bank” – a model which has now been replicated in over 40 other villages; and the Singer company in Thailand, well-known for its production of sewing machines, has established two centres in Khon Kaen province to provide training in commercial sewing skills. The centres are not only being used by local villagers, but also by others involved in TBIRD projects.

Some of the key factors underpinning TBIRD’s success have been:

• the individual vision and leadership of the project’s founder Mr Mechai Viravaidya;

• the vital intermediary role played by the PDA as a link between the companies and the villages;

• the emphasis placed on companies not just giving money, but also encouraging their employees to get involved. Many of the participating companies believe that this has given their mostly urban employees valuable first-hand experience of the rural realities in their country, increased morale and been beneficial to the company’s reputation;

• government endorsement and support for the programme, emphasised by the fact that all project expenses to TBIRD are tax-deductible; and

• a high-profile campaigning element – supported both by donor funds and the role played by individual corporate “champions” who are often prominent business leaders.

In the last couple of years PDA’s international training unit – The Asian Centre for Population and Community Development – has organised study tours and training courses on the TBIRD concept for participants from a number of other countries around the region, including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, Sri Lanka and China’s Yunnan province.