PPT’s Vision is a society in which all citizens of South Africa have equitable access to basic services and economic opportunities, and where there is normalization of the spatial and economic environments.

PPT’s Mission is to enable sustainable socio-economic and built environment development for the benefit of disadvantaged communities. PPT achieves this mission mainly through:

• Providing project preparation support to communities, funders, all spheres of government and other development stakeholders.
• Obtaining and managing funding for project preparation.
• Unlocking capital and other resources for project implementation.
• Mainstreaming project preparation.
• Promoting good practice, including holistic and sustainable development as well as the development and dissemination of replicable development methodologies.
• Transferring preparation and other developmental skills to government and other stakeholders.

PPT has a particular focus on the poorest of the poor and those in special need such as people living in marginalized rural communities or urban informal settlements, vulnerable children, or those affected by HIV/AIDS.

PPT operates primarily as a management core which assists communities, government and donor clients in managing project preparation in an effective, systematic and participative manner. This typically includes managing project funding, assessing and pre-screening candidate projects, briefing and managing professional project teams (whether private sector or NGO based), ensuring broad stakeholder participation and trouble-shooting to resolve challenges. In capital intensive projects this typically also includes managing pre-feasibility and feasibility studies and submitting and following through on applications for implementation funding. In executing these services, PPT ensures the support and participation of all key stakeholders including the beneficiary community, local municipality, key government departments, and project funders. PPT also provides selective training, capacity building and policy services.

PPT has received and successfully managed a wide range of funding and has a clean audit history in this regard. PPT wishes to extend its thanks to all the donors who have provided it with funding over the years… click here for more.

Securing sufficient funding for our pro-poor developmental programmes is an ongoing challenge for PPT and represents the major constraint on our ability to enhance and up-scale the work we do and thereby increase the number of beneficiaries we are able to reach. PPT is currently seeking additional funding to sustain and enhance a range of priority objectives…click here to read more.

In addition to the above-mentioned funders, PPT works closely with a wide range of partner organisations, government entities and professional service providers. PPT values these partnerships and associations which are crucial in achieving its developmental mandate. PPT also welcomes the opportunity to foster and establish new working relationships. Special mention is made of the following existing partners:

Newlands Mashu Permaculture Learning Centre, SaveAct, Development Action Group, Afesis Corplan, Built Environment Support Group, Planact and others.

eThekwini Metro, various Departments of Human Settlements (National, KZN, E Cape W Cape), many municipalities in several provinces, various Provicial Departments of Social Welfare (KZN, E Cape W Cape), Housing Development Agency, National Upgrading Support Programme and others.

PPT works with too many professional service providers to mention them all. They include engineers, town planners, local economic development experts, social facilitators, environmental and geotechnical consultants, and agricultural experts. Many of these service providers have a long association with PPT and have contributed much to the organisation’s achievements.

In many instances the projects with which PPT is involved are innovative pilots, which test new and improved development solutions and approaches. In many instances, these are potentially replicable and have been documented and disseminated by PPT (refer also to PPT Schedule of Replicable Models and the ‘Knowledge Resources’ section of this website). Examples of some of the areas in which PPT has had impact in this regard include:

• A rigorous and systematic project preparation methodology applicable to all projects.
• Detailed toolkits for the preparation of developmental responses for informal settlements.
• Detailed toolkits for the preparation of seven key types of infrastructure projects (sewer treatment upgrades, water treatment upgrades, bulk water supply, water reticulation, bulk access roads, landfill sites, rural sanitation).
• Participative pro-poor local economic action planning.
• The preparation of special needs housing projects.

PPT is involved in a range of mutually supporting developmental programmes and wherever possible pursues a holistic and integrated approach. These include: low income housing, infrastructure, informal settlement upgrading, special needs housing, pro-poor economic development, integrated development planning, sustainable energies, skills transfer and capacity building, land reform, and policy and strategy work.

PPT is independent and public interest and was registered as a Trust with the Master of High Court in 1993, the year before the election of South Africa’s first democratic government (Trust registration number IT9609/1993). PPT was established in order to assist South Africa with its transition to democracy through providing additional capacity and expertise to help overcome a range of developmental backlogs. PPT is also a registered not-for-profit organization (NPO registration number NPO-065-849). PPT is thus exempt from paying income tax in the Republic of South Africa and all donations made to the organization are therefore not taxed and can be utilized in their entirety for developmental purposes.

PPT maintains high standards of financial accounting and control, as expected of an organization responsible for managing funds from third parties such as donors. PPT operates according to a strict set of written financial controls that govern all financial activities including those relating to projects. In terms of its organizational (operating) finances, PPT is audited annually in terms of applicable South African legislation. PPT has a clean audit history in this regard with 26 successive unqualified audits since its establishment. PPT is in addition also audited on a regular basis in terms of various specific donor funding agreements and it likewise has a clean audit history in this regard (e.g. Jobs Fund, USAID, EU Gijima, etc.).

PPT’s strong corporate governance remains an important organisational asset. Annual budgets and work-plans are approved by the PPT Board and progress against these is closely monitored throughout the year. Semi annual and annual reports on both financial and operational aspects are submitted to the Board for consideration and approval. The annual work-plan includes a range of empirical performance result indicators across various key performance areas (including its developmental programmes, human resources management and finances). Regular meetings between management and the Finance and Operations Committees of the Board ensure that there is effective communication and monitoring of key financial and operational parameters.

PPT manages and evaluates its sustainability from both financial and human resources perspectives. PPT has a multi-year financial sustainability model which is updated and approved on a regular basis. PPT also has medium term human resources strategies in order to ensure that the organization is well equipped with the skills it requires and to facilitate better succession planning.

Click here to see the PPT team and Board of Trustees.