1. Partnerships in Theory

In this section the authors look at where partnerships stand in the global water sector, what partnerships are and what they can do. They go on to suggest some of the more important attributes to be aspired to in making a partnership flourish and conclude with an attempt at classifying partnerships – something that is accepted as being a difficult task.

Partnerships have been seen as highly relevant to the promotion of human development since the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by the UN in September 2000. They became more firmly established in that role at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 when over 200 partnerships were launched by national governments and other important actors in the international development sector.

The word itself has come to be applied to several types of inter-agency relationships that are definitely not partnerships. This is confusing and has to be guarded against.

Several definitions of a partnership are in use. Three are listed in the text, including one by the authors which is quite succinct and clear:

‘A partnership is an agreement between two or more partners to share knowledge, skills and responsibilities in order to achieve, through synergy, a common objective, a better position and/or economies of scale.’

Synergy is the key word here. Quite simply, when there is no synergy, no significant advantage to be gained by several partners pooling their individual competencies, skills and resources to meet a common goal, a relationship should not be called a partnership.

It has also to be accepted that a partnership may not necessarily be the best approach to meeting that goal. The purpose may be better served by, for example, a contractual relationship.

A partnership does not in itself have to be sustainable but it is more likely to flourish and be productive during its intended working life if trust and respect can be developed between the partners and if an even balance is maintained in the influence that individual partners have on the functioning of the group. The text looks at these attributes and at several others seen as desirable for the wellbeing of a partnership.

An attempt is made here to classify partnerships but the vast number of possible collaborations between all types of actors and the many cross-cutting linkages make this a thankless task.

Partnerships can be formed, for example, between public or private bodies, NGOs or knowledge institutions, or combinations of any or all of these. There is an equally diverse range of possible objectives with different types of partnership tending to focus on specific areas of the ‘objective spectrum.’ North-South partnerships, for instance, tend to concentrate on capacity building with aid finding while public/private sector collaborations look more usually to service or product provision and networks typically aim to spread knowledge between partners in order to do something more effectively.

The text looks at classification in some detail, covering three possible approaches – by objective, by partnership breadth and depth and by features such as purpose, level of attached risk etc. Two included graphics usefully illustrate some of the points made on classification.