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5. Building partnerships: Recommendations
   Last updated: 29.06.02
5. Recommendations: for donors and policy-makers
The lessons the Alliance has learned in capacity building for partnerships work have led to the development of the following two areas of key recommendations:

Recommendations for donors and policy-makers

  • Governments and donors on the one hand, and NGOs on the other, have often referred to “partnerships”. In fact, governments and donors often want NGOs to simply sub-contract official work, while NGOs often act as if they are entitled to support without critical review or willingness to collaborate. Governments and donors, as well as NGOs and NGO support programmes, should be aware that effective partnerships require each participant to respect differences while seeking common ground.


  • International donors increasingly push national governments to establish multiple partnerships in the development and implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes. Such encouragement can be positive, but donors should recognise that effective partnership building requires commitment and exchange of expertise from all sides as well as at least a minimum level of financial autonomy.


  • Donors and policy-makers can play a crucial, active role in fostering dialogue and co-operation between groups. For example they can plan and facilitate opportunities to bring together representatives from all the projects they support in a given country.


  • Donors and governments should play a particularly active role in facilitating partnerships at a national level. For example, Governments should involve NGOs in decision-making processes – as bringing NGOs to the table not only helps ensure better decisions but also acknowledges that different sectors have different strengths. In this case, NGOs’ experience working in local communities complements the government’s national perspective.


  • Traditional donors such as international agencies and governments should help encourage other sectors – such as media, business and religious - to form partnerships with NGOs.


Recommendations for NGO support programmes
  • Even at a modest level, partnerships should be introduced into a programme at the very beginning of a new relationship with an NGO - as part of a package of comprehensive support in programmatic and organisational sustainability. This helps to reinforce the concept and practice of partnerships being a core function integrated into an NGO’s overall strategic plans.


  • NGO support programmes should encourage NGOs to consider the value of partnerships that go beyond financial provision. For example, partnerships can include collaborations concerning advocacy and policy issues – as well as shared resources, in-kind support and technical expertise.


  • While using regional or international expertise to provide specific technical inputs, NGO support programmes need to prioritise building local human capacity for partnerships work. For example, it is often more appropriate to start with a training of trainers initiative than a workshop for NGOs. By developing a pool of local resource people, their training can help to build local expertise and sustain efforts. This is also the first step in adapting tools and methodologies to reflect local priorities.


  • Workshops and other forms of intensive technical support should not be delivered in isolation. Instead, they should, wherever possible, be complemented by providing follow-up support, as part of an NGO support programme’s on-going relationship with an NGO.


  • Monitoring and evaluation efforts should be specifically included in technical support provided to NGOs in building partnerships. For example, NGO support programmes might help NGOs collect baseline data and set goals as they begin their initiatives, or they might insist that NGOs include reporting on partnerships within their quarterly reports or end-of-project reviews.


  • Workshops and meetings facilitated by NGO support programmes that focus on partnership work between NGOs should emphasise that this is a mutual learning experience for NGOs. For example, NGO support programmes should not offer a set of prescribed answers to questions about sustainability and partnership. Emphasis on local priorities and problem solving helps to encourage NGOs to work together and overcome differences.


  • NGO support programmes need to consider how to measure their own success in terms of partnerships capacity building. For example, in addition to recording the number of people involved in efforts such as workshops, they should think about how to assess how their work actually enhanced the long-term skills of the NGOs involved. Programmes should also continue to learn and to develop their approaches – by identifying and sharing their lessons within their own organisations and with others.


Acknowledgements
This report benefited from the views of many different people involved in the Alliance’s partnership building work. Lead authors were Rebecca Clay and Sarah Lee. It was designed by Ideology.

International HIV/AIDS Alliance
Queensberry House, 104-106 Queen's Road
Brighton BN1 3XF
United Kingdom.
Tel: + 44 1273 718 900
Fax: + 44 1273 718 901

E-mail: mail@aidsalliance.org

With the support of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development.

Published: March 2000

[Feedback of technical support –PHANSuP, Report of Review of Activities and Results of 1999 and Strategic Planning for 2000. p10]

“It was PHANSuP that introduced us to the world of HIV/AIDS. From an organisation that knew nothing about HIV/AIDS, we can now be seen as a model. This is largely because of PHANSuP. Their technical support has helped us to grow – from the basics of starting off a project to preparing us for the next stage. We know that we can just pick up the phone, tell PHANSuP our problem, and they’re ready to help.” Miriam Grafilo, COMDEV, a PHANSuP partner in its fourth and final year of support.

“PHANSuP has transferred technology to us, and we’ve been able to use it. PHANSuP’s strategies respect NGOs and build NGOs. PHANSuP is very open – they say what they think, we say what we think, and we work it out together. They understand the unique context of our work, they were the first to fund us for an STD project, the first to listen to us and to show trust to us.” Wilfred Bidad, SHED, a PHANSuP partner in its second year of support.

“We learned about treating other sectors – such as business, government and media – as partners rather than enemies….. We began to realise that we could reach out to our community through all sorts of different ways and that we could sustain ourselves through local means. The PHANSuP workshops gave us confidence and knowledge to go out there and do it…. Now, our plan is that our work will become more sustainable on funds from local businesses.” Jude Asuncion, a Board Member of OCAFI, Philippines.

“This programme has allowed me to grow at both a personal and professional level to learn new tools and facilitation techniques. More than anything, it’s allowed me to apply what I’ve learned to my organisation to improve our work and to make a detailed plan of what we want to achieve. Another achievement is that I have become more actively involved in decision making processes and programme work within my organisation.” Member of La Red de Personas Viviendo con VIH/SIDA in Mexico.

“It is the first time ever in the history of the fight against AIDS in Mexico that many of the most important NGOs have started to work together strategically and, a year later, they continue to go from strength to strength. For the first time, there is a strategic approach to the fight, based on the internal strengthening of NGOs. This is the first time that organisational development for internal capacity building has been used to encourage NGOs to work together.” Sandra Peniche, Director of UNASSE/GIRE, one of the participants in the Mexico training programme.

“I really appreciate your efforts on sharing information and lessons learned with others. Already, the toolkit you sent to me on “ Pathways to Partnerships” is helping us here in Uganda to initiate a National Alliance between Religious Institutions, AIDS care organisations, People living with HIV/AIDS and the Private Sector for increased Prevention and Care.”
Reverend Samual Balagadde Ssekkadde, Namirembe Diocese, Church of Uganda

Source: Building Partnerships
This is an extract from Building Partnerships: Sustaining and Expanding Community Action on HIV/AIDS, published by the International HIV/AIDS
Alliance in March 2000.

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