successful partnerships a guide - Organisation for Economic Co ...

successful partnerships a guide
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2. Specialists must be responsible for some of the evaluation stages.
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Specialists must lend their expertise to the partners and ensure their basic training in evaluation
methods.
They must guide the partners through the process and verify and validate their choice of key
indicators or follow-up methods.
At certain stages they must conduct satisfaction surveys among the partnership’s clients or
beneficiaries, and analyse the results.
For their part, project participants must agree to compile necessary data and information.
This approach helps partners familiarise themselves with the evaluation methods and develop
a certain expertise in the field, guaranteeing both the credibility of the process and the results obtained and
validated by the external specialists.
The partnerships may choose among various methods of evaluation the one that best suits their case,
both in terms of membership and in terms of scope and objectives. The use of an external evaluator combined
with the partnership’s involvement in the procedure shall ensure demonstrable optimum results. Moreover,
continuous internal auditing (in a softer way than the usual entrepreneurial process) will help the partnership
maintain reliability and credibility among its members. This holds especially in the case of partnerships involving
a wide variety of members.
3. The evaluation and monitoring process must be implemented at the beginning of
the partnership.
In order to fully appreciate the direction taken by the partnership and its results, it is important
to establish the initial baseline situation as quickly as possible and to compile key data regularly and on
an on-going basis. A budget must also be provided for evaluation and monitoring from the start.
Especially for the monitoring process, it is essential to install a mechanism friendly to the user,
constructed in such a way as to facilitate the work of the partners appointed to follow up the activities and
procedures. Separating the monitoring of activities from that of the partnership’s own development (evolution,
widening of the scope, enlargement, etc.) will help organise the internal process on the basis of crucial questions
such as: “What are we planning and implementing”, “With what human and economic resources”, “What is
our benefit and corresponding cost”, “In what do we see deficit or surplus (in many terms, like effort, money,
ideas etc)”
Such circumstances not only ensure a fair and accurate appreciation of the work done, but also
provide an assessment of the effects and long-term impacts of the partnership in the region. Corrective action
can be quickly taken if it is possible to credibly demonstrate expected results both to the community
and to financial backers.
The process ultimately results in greater trust among partners and more credibility for
the partnership itself.