CommDev has developed this section in partnership with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR).
Executive Summary | Need for Partnership | Partnering Across Sectors | Practicing Partnerships | Tools
This section explores the need for partnerships between companies, communities, government and civil society for development. While many companies have created and implemented successful community development projects on their own, partnership can bring additional expertise and resources to projects and transform them into opportunities to foster communities’ ability to take responsibility for their own development. In fact, all can benefit from partnerships that coordinate and capitalize on each sectors’ capabilities. Most importantly, partnership can achieve greater and more sustainable development.
An introduction to each sector is provided, along with a process and tools for establishing and navigating a partnership.
Many oil, gas, and mining companies have created and implemented successful community development projects on their own. However, ‘going it alone’ can involve risks both for development efforts and companies for several reasons. First, development is not a core competency for most companies, and they may lack the development expertise and knowledge needed to design appropriate and effective development projects. A project which fails to meet community expectations can damage company-community relations and company reputation on a broader scale. Second, even the best-intentioned companies may find they lack sufficient resources to mobilize or sustain development efforts. Finally, by executing projects independently, companies miss the opportunity to enhance communities’ capability to take responsibility for their own development.
Fortunately, companies are only one of several local actors working for change. Government, civil society, and communities themselves share the goal of development and bring different skills, information, and resources to the effort. Partnerships between industry, government, civil capability, and community, when well planned and managed, can build on the strengths and capability of each actor to produce greater and more sustainable development impacts. In essence, partnership avoids duplication of effort, capitalizes on each actor’s expertise, and pools resources to tackle the most challenging and complex social problems. Partnership is nonetheless challenging, requiring communication and commitment from all partners.
Partnership can provide a number of common and specific benefits for each actor.
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Partnership is more than consultation; it means sharing responsibility and authority in the design, execution, and monitoring of development projects. Each sector has its own primary goals and ways of working – understanding these differences will help when negotiating and navigating the collaboration.
- Business partners can include companies, their contractors and financial institutions. Companies often move rapidly in decision-making and project execution, and can contribute innovation and planning abilities to development.
- Governments have primary responsibility for community development and may have formal development planning processes. National and regional governments can offer legitimacy, capacity building, and scale to development efforts, while local governments can help ensure their quality and sustainability. Governments, however, can vary in their capacity, credibility, and transparency.
- Civil Society can include a wide range of organizations of all sizes. Multilateral institutions are some of the largest development actors, with extensive funds and technical expertise, but can be bureaucratic. Bilateral agencies are associated with particular governments and reflect their policies. Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) operate at the international, national, and local levels and can pursue advocacy, service delivery, or mix of both. They can provide funding resources, advocate for local needs, share local knowledge, and engage community members. Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) help mobilize local, national, and international volunteers who can provide labor and expertise. Research institutions help to create knowledge of communities and project impacts through research. Donors can provide funds, development expertise, and local contacts, but often prefer to contribute to established development programs.
- Community Organizations are formal or informal associations rooted in communities. They often have few financial or technical resources but have extensive local knowledge and ability to mobilize community participation and resources. They may vary in the extent to which the represent all community interests and may require time to develop community consensus for decisions. They also may require capacity building for participation on development planning and implementation.
FIGURE 1: Potential Partners & Resources by Sector
All partnerships, whether formal or informal, short-or-long term, generally follow the cycle below.
Partnerships begin with scoping, or determining the need for and goals of partnership. They end with steps to sustain either by continuing the partnership, or applying the lessons learned from partnership to new partnerships.
Communication between partners, building each others’ capacity, a collaborative attitude, and clarity of each partners’ role are key to growing and maintaining the partnership throughout the cycle.
Tips on Selecting Partners
- Consider selection criteria such as: reputation, size, technical expertise, past project experience, management capability, and other organizational obligations.
- Work in depth with a few partners for the long-term rather than collaborating with many.
- Consider teams of two partners. This adds a layer of complexity in communication and coordination, but can avoid the fragility and vulnerability of depending on a single partner. In addition, multiple partners can provide important balancing qualities. For example, a national or international partner may help communicate the partnership and project to a wider audience and provide best practice guidance, while a local partner will have more local contacts and specialized expertise.
Tips on Building Internal Support
- Upper management support can help keep the partnership visible and motivate participation.
- Integrated support from decision-makers in other parts of the organizations ensures that all potential resources are pointed towards the partnership and project.
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