Enhancing the Effectiveness of Sustainability Partnerships Summary of a Workshop (2009) / Chapter Skim
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I Introduction
I Introduction
Pages 1-8
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convened a symposium that attempted to advance the dialogue on partnerships for sustainability in order to catalyze existing knowledge and inform future efforts. Ideas that came out of discussions at the symposium will help leaders in government, the private sector, foundations and NGOs, and universities, both in the United States and internationally, as they develop and participate in new partnerships for sustainability.
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It was during this period that the steering committee also began to tighten its working definition of "partnership," recognizing that the term can mean different things to different entities. Previously, the committee had relied on a general definition put forward by Xavier de Souza Briggs (2003)
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Moreover, the steering committee distinguished partnerships from more traditional donor–grantee or contractual relationships, noting that several of these had been recast as "old wine in new bottles" as the partnership mechanism gained favor. While these relationships still hold value and in some cases may be a preferred approach, the committee's intent was to examine what it considered to be a new and more experimental approach, where partners blur or eliminate those traditional lines, and relationships are characterized by more give and take and cross-sector dialogue, and less inequality or power imbalance (though these are still major challenges)
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with user-defined needs. Recognizing that the wealth of knowledge present in existing partnerships is at best haphazardly, and often anecdotally shared with a wider audience, the steering committee chose to commission case studies of notable partnerships that would be discussed at the symposium Some reviews of partnerships have attempted to categorize them by objective (e.g., OECD, 2006)
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. Thus, the steering committee developed a typology to organize the case studies, and hypothesized that valuable and transferable lessons might be drawn out by posing a set of "core questions" to explore the context and incentives that draw partners into an alliance, as well as a functional analysis that examines some of the implementation strategies, organizational structures, and assessment methodologies being utilized.
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STRUCTURE OF THE SYMPOSIUM To mine the knowledge generated in the 11 case studies and supplement it with the collective wisdom of an audience of practitioners and analysts, the steering committee organized a symposium over a day and a half where case study authors and other expert panelists discussed several cross-cutting themes. The individual cases provided background for the discussions, but
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Audience members had opportunities to question panelists as well as share personal experiences and insights. The resultant discussions benefitted from the wealth of collective knowledge, along with the information provided by the background papers prepared for and distributed prior to the symposium.
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This is where the typology can benefit individual partnerships; understanding where one fits within the typology helps eliminate wasted time and allows the partnership to begin accessing the knowledge of similarly styled partnerships.
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