NGO support toolkit (English)  >  Institutional Change 

Partnerships

Building partnerships is about working with others to achieve what we cannot achieve on our own.

A partnership is a special kind of relationship, in which people or organisations combine their resources to carry out a specific set of activities. Partners work together for a common purpose, and for mutual benefit. Different people and organisations have a wide range of resources to offer each other NGOs use different words to refer to building partnerships. For example, some talk about “external relations” or “strategic alliances”. It is important that, when NGOs start to use this toolkit, they define for themselves the key words that they commonly use.

Building partnerships is about relationships that are in-depth, involve a few carefully selected targets, and have specific, practical goals. It is different from “public relations” or “networking” – where activities are likely to be less in-depth, involve many more targets, and be for the general purposes of information-sharing and solidarity. Although building partnerships and “public relations” are different, they can both help an NGO and their HIV/AIDS work with communities.

Almost all NGOs already have experience in building partnerships – even if they do not realise it. Partnerships can complement an NGO’s programmes. Through developing programmes, NGOs can respond directly to specific local needs and priorities for action. Through building partnerships, NGOs can improve the overall environment for responding to HIV/AIDS in a community or a country. Although different, programmes and partnerships support the same organisational mission or goal. For this reason, an NGO should include building partnerships within its overall strategic plan.

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