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

successful partnerships a guide
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Partnerships did not find it a difficult exercise to identify the main factors for success: they all know
what positively affects their work. It is felt that procedures such as partnership management, transparent
financing, capacity building, monitoring/evaluation and others must be clearly established. Targeted training and
guidance are necessary – particularly in the early stages – and active communication and an information
strategy for the public are also felt to be greatly important. The partnerships interviewed indicated that
the following were also key factors for success:
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The involvement of all important partners and subjects of the state sector, local or regional
self-government, public organisations, NGOs, non-formal communities, the business sector, individual
citizens and voluntary and community sector agencies as well as effective support from national and
regional government;
Mutual confidence and respect among the partners and a high level of information exchange;
Strong agreement among partners on a clear and simple vision and a set of outcomes that will help
their core business;
Clarity in the minds of all partners regarding their roles;
Use of innovative tools (e.g. the Performance Management System 10 ) and models to identify
the needs of the area (e.g. the Relationship Cluster Model discussed below);
Professional management and co-ordination by the co-ordinators, leaders of the partnerships
and members of the partnership board;
Sufficient resources to maintain and support the partnership (the necessary start-up funding); and
Good communication and public relations for reporting successes.
In Finland, support and commitment by municipalities is comparatively strong. By using a bottom-up
approach, partnerships successfully learn from their own experience. “We can admit it if something that we do
doesn’t work – it’s a valuable outcome for us. We do not and cannot know everything – this is the reason why
we have built the partnership. Experts in our regional network and the employees are coming from different
sectors. We work as a multi-professional team and there is a good working spirit within the team. One basic thing
is that our customers, the long-term unemployed people, are also teaching us many things. We are not above
them, but equal to them and we learn from each other,’’ explained Erja Lindberg, project manager of Central
Uusimaa Partnership.
The Coventry Partnership, a local strategic partnership in the United Kingdom, positively appraises
the ability of their local authority to lead the development of the process but not to control it. Other important
factors in its success are a common set of values aimed at addressing disadvantage and promoting equality;
effective skills development for practitioners; and professional management to ensure that good relationships
between organisations are maintained.
In the case of the Marlborough Regional Development Trust (MRDT), a formal partnership with
the Marlborough District Council (Local Government) and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (a central
government development agency) was created five years ago, and one of its first policy developments was
to conceptualise the process of building networks and developing partnerships. “The foundation of
the Relationship Clusters Model has allowed the Trust to map the regions and its external connections via
function rather than organizations. This has proven an exceptionally valuable tool in identifying where networks
need to exist and what partnerships should be constructed’’, said Tony Smale, responsible for the Marlborough
Regional Development Trust. 11
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The Performance Management System was adopted by the Coventry Partnership (United Kingdom) in January 2004.
It incorporates details about the types of evidence that drives performance management and the processes, templates and tools used
for reviewing progress and impact of the Coventry Community Plan.
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More information on the Relation Cluster Model can be found at www.mrdt.co.nz.