Partnership for Productivity Records

Partnership for Productivity (PfP) was a Quaker-sponsored program in overseas economic development which advised small business ventures primarily in African countries. It was founded in 1969 by David H. Scull with an initial project established in Western Kenya in 1970. Its two organs, the Partnership for Productivity Foundation/USA, Inc., (a non-profit service agency) and the Partnership for Productivity Investments/USA, Inc., (a limited dividend stock company) were designed to provide capital for loans or investments, combined with on-going management counsel or personal supervision. The goal of the Foundation was "to promote the better sharing of the world’s resources as an expression of a religious concern." Its work was to be accomplished "through assisting and encouraging beneficial and productive industrial and commercial enterprise in the economically less developed countries and through helping to create conditions favorable to such development." Activities included providing business, educational and social services, investing or lending available funds and personal leadership. The purpose of PfP Investments/USA, Inc., company was "to invest in, loan to, or underwrite loans for, beneficial and productive industrial and commercial enterprise in the economically less-developed countries; it may do this directly or by lending to or investing in other organizations established to carry our similar objectives."

In December 1986, the Board resolved to liquidate the corporation after a sudden financial crisis which occurred when liabilities caused the enterprise to collapse. CARE absorbed some of the PfP’s project.

David H. Scull (1914-1983) was a Virginia Quaker businessman. He was active in civil rights and other social concerns and one of the founders of Langley Hill Monthly Meeting in McLean, Virginia. He served as clerk of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, on the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College, and chair of the International Affairs committee of the Friends World Committee for Consultation through its World Resources Committee. He was founder and president of PfP from 1970 to 1979.

A. Keith Smiley, a member of the Quaker family which owned and managed Lake Mohonk Mountain House, was a board member of the Production for Productivity Foundation from 1969 to its end. He was active in Quaker activities and served as member of the Friends World Committee executive committee and its subcommittee Sharing the World’s Resources. Lake Mohonk Mountain House was established in 1869 by Albert and Alfred Smiley near New Palz, N.Y., and was the site of a special conferences (Lake Mohonk Conferences of Friends of the Indian and Lake Mohonk Conferences on International Arbitration) as well as the regular meeting location for Partnership for Productivity.