Knowledge Resource Group

Endearing Myths, Enduring Truths: Enabling Partnerships
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Evolving Partnerships

Partnerships change over time, and sometimes dramatically so. The life cycle of many trisector partnerships begins with a less-diverse set of engaged organisations. Aguas de Cartagena was created as a joint venture between the Municipality of Cartagena and the Spanish water utility, Aguas de Barcelona, in 1994. The contract was conceived exclusively as a joint venture between the municipality and the business partner. At that initial stage, there was no contractual specifications regarding service to poorer communities. This changed as a result of the political imperatives of the municipality, the corporate culture of Aguas de Barcelona, and a World Bank loan to the municipality, signed in early 2000, to support the development of water and sanitation infrastructure in Cartagena. This loan was made conditional in part on the existing partners engaging with community groups to determine how best to extend the municipal water supply in the locality. This in turn led to the formation of a trisector partnership involving NGOs that have moved in and out, and community-based organizations that have steadily gained credibility within the partnership.

The evolution of organizational engagement can go beyond the partnership’s direct formal participants. The Global Alliance for Workers and Communities (GA) was from the outset formally a trisector partnership, involving the International Youth Foundation, Nike Corporation, Mattel Inc, and the World Bank. However, the critical relationship within the partnership was between Nike and the IYF, highlighting the importance of understanding which partners, in practice, exert the most influence and to what effect. Following its inception in 1999, the GA has evolved further and is now beginning to engage with the international trade union movement, other key civil society organisations involved in the labour area, and the International Labour Organization (ILO). What this example reveals is that in many partnerships, key relationships exist, both within and outside formal boundaries, and that these change over time. Indeed in the case of the GA, its very success depends on such developments.

Evolving Partnerships

Endearing Myth

Stable and clearly bounded partnerships are most likely to be effective.

Enduring Truth

A partnership’s success often depends on its evolution, for example, in its membership and wider relationships, and in some instances even in its purpose.

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