What Are Effective Partnerships in development sector and business context?

Partnerships is an  ongoing working relationship between different organizations, which align common interests, share risks,  combine resources and competencies to maximize the achievement of agreed partnership objectives while delivering net value to each individual partner.

In other words, partners work together to achieve the goal of the partnership. They also try to achieve the goal of each individual partner.

 Kinds of Partnership

Partnerships come in many shapes and sizes. Some will be simple and require little cooperation. Partnerships like this might resemble the relationship between a buyer and a seller, clear, transactional, and limited. Others will require deep collaboration and integration. Partnerships like this will resemble the creation of an entirely new organization. In fact, partnerships can occupy anywhere on a broad spectrum from transactional to transformational, as seen below.

Source Phil Uni

We can say that one type of partnership is not better than another. For example, Delivery partnerships, despite being simple, can be more efficient and cost-effective while Transformative partnerships, despite being more costly, can deliver greater impact. The important thing to remember is that you and your partner can choose how closely you want to work together.

Before you start looking for partners, you should consider what level of partnership would best suit your organization’s needs. For example, if your organization values having a lot of control and has few resources to dedicate to new partnerships, a Transform partnership is probably not right for you.

However, keep in mind that you will not always be able to predict which level of partnership you will engage in. Typically, the level of partnership emerges as a joint decision between all involved partners based on negotiations, conversations, and prior work together. Finally, keep in mind that partnerships can evolve over time, for example, partnerships will begin as simple, limited projects but become more transformational and complex over time.

Is a partnership approach the right way to achieve organization’s mission?

If a prestigious international NGO approaches your organization seeking partnership while they are not clear exactly how you would work together. It can be tempting for your organization but the partnerships would not be effective in this case because the goal of the partnership should help you achieve your organization’s goals rather than creating a new famous friend. If your organization’s goal is to wipe out disease, the partnership needs to help you wipe out diseases.

The point here is that partnerships are only one possible way to deliver outcomes, and they are not always the most effective way. You should always consider whether there is a more effective, efficient, or sustainable way to deliver the outcomes that your organization provides.

In short: Partnerships should only be entered if they are the best way to achieve your organization’s existing goals. If you could achieve your goals more effectively by working alone, then a partnerships approach is not right.

When are partnerships the best way to achieve your organization’s mission?

 In general, partnerships are useful when they help you:

1. To achieve more (more effectively, more efficiently, or more sustainably) than you could achieve alone
2. To align and combine limited resources in ways that creates and maximizes value for all.

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