This month two of the more than 400 USGLC member organizations set an important milestone. Procter & Gamble and World Vision worked together to provide their 3 billionth liter of clean drinking water to the developing world. Through this partnership, World Vision uses their global reach to help ensure more people around the world have access to Procter & Gamble’s innovative PUR water purification packets.

The partnership, known as the Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program is now in its 7^th year and already on track to surpass its goal of delivering 4 billion liters of clean water by 2012. As members of the USGLC, P&G and World Vision know well that American economic prosperity is linked with the rest of the world and that it is in U.S. interests to promote the growth of healthy, stability societies that are amenable to business and trade. The results-driven initiative has set a high benchmark for private partnerships between business leaders and development organizations.

World Vision and P&G have provided safe water in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Haiti, Kenya and Zimbabwe. More recently, the CSDW responded to the 2010 Pakistan flood emergency by providing 1.1 million PUR packets to sanitize contaminated water in severely affected regions; thereby, averting a potential global health catastrophe.

The program sets a clear example for the rest of  the corporate world and the NGO community; it also shows Washington how important it can be to work with the private sector.  “No other humanitarian intervention has a more dramatic effect on children and families than access to clean water and sanitation,” said Keith Kall, senior director of global corporate Partnerships for World Vision. “We are deeply grateful for P&G’s innovative partnership, which has significantly supported the life-saving work we do in countries like Rwanda.” Over 2.7 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and 1.8 million children die due to diarrheal diseases each year. While these kinds of stories don’t always make headlines, the private partnership of P&G and World Vision highlights the importance of international engagement to American business and to global stability, as well as the exciting possibilities of public-private partnerships.