Partnerships

Definition: A partnership involves two or more parties working to achieve common interests and goals.

Evaluating partnerships

An effective and reliable partnership needs, as a bare minimum, to have

In assessing a potential partner, it is important to consider firstly:

What is their role/ contribution to the partnership?
What drives their interest and commitment?
What concerns and constrains them?
and secondly,
How important is the partnership to them?
What benefits do they gain from their involvement?
What are the costs and risks to them of this involvement?

Benefits of partnerships

Partnerships bring considerable benefits, chiefly

•  Win-win for both parties
  
•  Increased synergies “added value”
  
•  New insights/perspectives
  
•  Shared workload & responsibilities
  
•  Cost reduction & sharing
  
•  Increased resource base
  
•  Increased legitimacy and credibility – greater impact
  
•  Spreading of risk
  
•  Better delivery of outputs (projects, programmes)
  
•  Increased dissemination of information
  
•  Increased visibility among clients (better marketing)