2. Partnerships in Practice

The text covers the reality of partnerships, comparing the desirable attributes mentioned in the previous section with what might be seen ‘on the ground’ and listing some of the reasons for partnership failures.

Building and assessing partnerships is also dealt with here and the section closes with a summary of some lessons learned.

Beginning on a rather negative note the section records that many of the desirable attributes listed in Section 1 are frequently missing, replaced with distinctly unhelpful elements such as unstated competition between partners, enforced rather than voluntary collaboration and absence of a common vision.

These factors will not necessarily bring a partnership down. As the authors say, partners rarely collaborate voluntarily or have a common vision. They come together because they need each other and a common vision is not essential as long as there is clear agreement on a common goal.

Several factors more likely to cause breakdown are listed, including costs and risks exceeding benefits, lack of a relationship to a partner’s core business and an absence of real buy-in or commitment at senior level.

With an awareness of some of these possible pitfalls, and a decision that a partnership is indeed the best approach to meeting the desired objective, a logical building process can be set in train, provided also that the proposed location of the intervention does offer an enabling environment. Amongst the essentials are reasonable economic stability, a regulatory framework and receptive political and local interests.

Building has to begin by identifying which individuals or organizations might offer the skills and resources needed to meet the end objective. Extensive communication will be needed here to match needs with partner skills.

Then will follow a learning process to establish partner strengths and weaknesses as the forerunner to defining roles and responsibilities and leading on to setting policies, programmes and activities.

All these, as well as objectives and timeframes, may be formalised within a written document, a useful aid to promoting transparency and resolving possible disputes at a later stage.

The authors warn of the need during this building process to be aware of possible conflicts between the aims of partners and to be prepared to frame the common approach to accommodate them. They illustrate this very clearly by referring to an intervention to provide a water service where a private partner might want cost recovery but an NGO would want affordable access for the poor. A possible solution would be to expand service coverage with cost recovery but include a social protection scheme for the poor.

In referring to the assessment of partnerships the authors include two boxed examples of suitable indicators, one relating to the effectiveness of partnerships for sustainable development, the second listing suitable indicators for forming and maintaining partnerships.

The broad aim of assessment is to measure performance against the individual objectives of the partners and against the common declared goals and to monitor in such a way as to demonstrate accountability to the partners themselves, to donors and to the intended beneficiaries. Some practical issues associated with the monitoring process, such as data collection, reporting and feedback requirements, are discussed.

The authors close this section by looking at what has been learned from past and ongoing partnerships. They do so by listing recommended “Do‘s” and “Don’ts” both for partnerships in general and for the usual individual types of organization seen in partnerships, such as NGOs, the private sector, public sector etc.