Dakar, Senegal ( — The UNDP has initiated an innovative Internet distance learning course to enable students at 19 universities and other institutions around the world exchange information on solutions to urban environmental problems facing the poor. Involved in the project in Africa are the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Polytechnic of Namibia Uganda's Makerere Institute of Social Research and the Zambian Institute of Economic and Social Research.

Hundreds of millions of people living in squalid conditions in urban areas world-wide confront common problems affecting their survival, including access to water and sanitation, solid waste management, and energy services.

Finding solutions to these urban ills is essential for overcoming poverty.

UNDP's Public-Private Partnerships for the Urban Environment (PPPUE) is pioneering new ways for government, the private sector and civil society to join forces to address problems facing the poor in cities on every continent.

The new Distance Learning Course is harnessing the Internet to share ideas and experience on these new partnerships, says a UNDP news release received in Dakar.

The course links students, researchers and those working in public policy, with the main goal of helping developing countries build local capacity and expertise on ways that public-private partnerships could help address urban environmental problems.

More universities are expected to sign on to the course, and five universities have started class sessions, integrating the Distance Learning Course into their academic schedules.

UNDP is contributing to the operating costs of the course at most institutions. Basic teaching materials are provided, as well as an e-mail forum for participants and other technical support. The materials were developed by Yale University and tested in collaboration with the University of Western Cape (South Africa) and the Center for Environmentally Sustainable Technology Transfer (China).

The Distance Learning Course is part of PPPUE's effort to establish a Global Learning Network to foster exchange of best practices and lessons learned on the development of public- private partnerships.