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Where possible, develop new partnerships as a preparedness activity rather than in the heat of a response to ensure people can be mobilized immediately to help - especially for partners with whom you are not used to working or who have a different organizational culture. (51)
What do we mean by partnerships?
A partnership is when more than one organization or actor agrees to work towards shared objectives and who make explicit agreements and have accountability to each other. This includes both relationships that might be captured in a contract as well as in a more informal agreement such as a memorandum of understanding (MOU) or terms of reference (ToR).
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Example – Partnership modalities could look like:
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Why might you partner?
Partnerships can increase program quality, scale, and operational efficiency, each of which can have impacts on inclusion, safety, and overall impact.
- Maximize program quality by leveraging diverse expertise and enhanced capacity, providing culturally appropriate services.
- Increase scale by expanding geographic coverage, reaching different segments of the population, providing services in more languages.
- Increase operational efficiency by avoiding duplication, gathering and verifying information from diverse sources more quickly, leveraging existing networks and communication channels.
Who might you partner with?
Review the stakeholder assessment you conducted or updated during the assessment phase (See Module 2.2.4). Start by considering other actors who are already conducting activities that are part of the RISE model (e.g. communicating with communities or information sharing, service mapping, or other forms of content creation, information verification, translation or interpretation) as well as other types of actors who are trusted by, have access to, or have knowledge about the needs of particular groups. If you didn’t identify any actors conducting RISE-related activities in the stakeholder assessment process, you may want to consider trying to identify such actors in relevant coordination spaces (See Module 2.1). Importantly, consider your strengths and what you can offer to those partners. See Table 7 for examples of potential partners.
| Participation – Actors closest to the crisis are the main agents of response and recovery. Especially if you are not a part of the community you are targeting, consider how you can partner - formally or informally - with organizations or actors who are. When we partner with local actors, we contribute to greater impact and scale and more sustainable outcomes. Moreover, grassroots and local organizations will often be the first to quickly mobilize in a crisis to share information and connect affected people to the resources they need. Tap into and build on those initiatives. |
| Inclusion – Pay particular attention to partnerships with actors focused on or that represent people disproportionately impacted by crisis and systemic inequality (including women, children, persons with disabilities, diverse SOGIESC, etc.), which can be crucial for inclusivity. |
Table 7. Examples of types of actors and how they might contribute to delivering responsive information services
*Please note that this list is not exhaustive, but it can provide a starting point of ideas. This table offers examples of the different kinds of actors you may consider partnering with and what they might bring
to a RISE program. These are meant as illustrative examples and may not be the case for every context.
| Type of Organization | How They Might Contribute – Examples |
|---|---|
| Community organizations or community leaders |
See IRC’s Guide for Engaging Community Leaders during Disease Outbreaks (52) and Guide for Engaging Religious & Faith-based Leaders during Disease Outbreaks. (53) |
| Larger humanitarian actors (eg. INGOs, UN, etc.) |
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| News media organizations |
See BBCMA Lifeline Guidance on Working with Broadcasters in Humanitarian Crises (54), Internews' Local Media and Community Engagement in Humanitarian Settings (55), The Space Between Us: Trust, Communication, and Collaboration between Media and Humanitarian Organizations in Public Health Emergencies (56), and IFRC Sample Radio Program Proposal (57). |
| Representative groups for women, children, persons with disabilities, diverse SOGIESC, etc. |
See the UNICEF Disability Inclusive Humanitarian Toolkit for tips on engaging with organizations of persons with disabilities in humanitarian action. (58) |
| Sectoral actors (health, protection, cash, AAP, etc.) |
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| Government actors |
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| Mobile Network Operators or technology companies |
See the GSMA Humanitarian Connectivity Charter (59) and Nethope (60). |
How to partner?
- Select potential partners whose vision, mission, values, strategic priorities and programming align with yours. (See Module 2.2.4).
- Discuss and decide on partnership potential: Initiate a conversation and build the relationship with the identified actor(s). Explore your respective visions for meeting information needs and the role each of might have in your potential partnership. These discussions usually start by exploring the overall vision for the partnership and the broad role of each partner; over time they get more specific and detailed. Prioritize open, respectful communication and be aware of and mitigate any power imbalance between organizations. Approach the partnership as an opportunity to achieve more together than you could separately and promote collaborative analysis and decision making from the outset.
- Enter into a co-design session with your partner and/or decide how you will partner. Once you have decided who to partner with, determine how you will work together and the ways in which you might support one another (see examples of partnership modalities above). Also work together to define how you will each monitor success of the partnership.
- Conduct a risk assessment of the potential partnership. In addition to considering any historical red flags and the capacity of the partner, you will also want to consider the perception of the community of that potential partner, its ties to specific groups or leaders that may be political, and other potential risks to the integrity, credibility, and trust of your information service. This process should be collaborative. Reflect with the partner on the relevance and application of the risks to the proposed project collaboration and determine the appropriate mitigation strategies together. For example, conducting due diligence and signing agreements (See Module 2.4.5).
- Create a written agreement for your partnership. Different to coordination and collaboration, where there is a loosely defined way of working, a partnership usually requires written documentation. This can be legally binding, such as a contract, or can be less formal such as agreed upon memorandum or understanding (MOU) or Terms of Reference (ToR). These agreements might stipulate:
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- Role and responsibilities
- A timeframe for the partnership
- Outline of key activities and who is going to do what
- Specification of value amount if providing funds
- Accountability mechanisms to one another, such as outlining frequency of meeting or submission of written reports
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- Where relevant, support partners that desire a full handover of the project. A partner may seek to develop its organizational capacity to operate independently of your organization.
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NOTE – If the partner will play a significant role in responsive information service delivery, include them in program design conversations from the start. At a minimum, collaborate with these partners to allocate program resources, based on what will improve impact and scale, maximizing funds for those leading service delivery. |
| RESOURCE – See INTRAC’s Exiting / transitioning from international partnerships: a toolkit for small NGOs (61) for more information. |