Partnerships and Engagement

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Partnerships and engagement

Partnerships poster.JPG

These wiki pages cover all the literature and work of the CGIAR LIVESTOCK CRP on partnerships and engagement.

Partnership principles

The new partnership principles 'CARES' (see poster) were developed in 2018 to upgrade the principles underpinning the ILRI partnership strategy from 2008 (see 'background' section further below on this page). The new CARES principles consist of:

  • Communication
  • Accountability
  • Respect
  • Efficiency
  • Synergy

These principles are supposedly followed by everyone at ILRI / LIVESTOCK.

Ongoing partnership development and management within LIVESTOCK

A partnership development and management guide is being developed (in the first half of 2019) which should contain a concise overview of key issues and recommendations for LIVESTOCK staff to follow, particularly priority country staff. A partnership virtual consultation organized in February 2019 (with very scarce attendance) led to the conclusion that partnerships and engagement in LIVESTOCK would essentially respond to 'as and when' requests from staff, rather than proactively offering a wide range of support options.

Ongoing LIVESTOCK partnering (and support) work is also being documented on a regular basis on the LIVESTOCK website. Here are some expected blog posts in the first half of 2019:

  • How to make the most with your partners out of everyday matters?
  • Online partnership consultation: Useful ways forward, despite limited participation
  • The art of productive partnering (1) – a brand new start
  • The art of productive partnering (2) – preparing the ground and choosing the right partnersThe art of productive partnering (3) – Structures, skills and saying something
  • The art of productive partnering (3) – Structures, skills and saying something
  • Partnerships to improve pastoral policies in Tunisia – new ICARDA project works on updating Tunisian pastoral code
  • Delivering a livestock program – role of partnerships?

Key resources about partnerships

These are some of the most prominent resources on partnerships based on peer recommendations, a search on ILRI's collection in CG-Space, and on a query made on the global community of practice 'Knowledge Management for Development' (see query summary here: [http:wiki.km4dev.org/Partnership_development_and_management| http:wiki.km4dev.org/Partnership_development_and_management)]

Other CG-Space ILRI records:

An overview of this partnership literature

Read more about these and other literature references about partnership with a 'quick-and-dirty' overview of key issues by Ewen Le Borgne.

Background to ILRI/LIVESTOCK partnering

When ILRI issued its partnership strategy in 2008, these are the principles that they put together:

  • ILRI commits itself to engage with partners in an inclusive, transparent and trustworthy manner where credits are shared with integrity and obligations are implemented in a mutually accountable way while being fully committed to the impacts and strategic goals.
  • Partnership and collaboration, however, are considered a means to an end and ILRI must carefully consider the quality of partnerships and weigh the trade-offs in terms of transaction costs vs. outcomes and impacts.
  • ILRI enters into a partnership with another institution if and only if both ILRI and the potential partner can identify and articulate clearly their expected mutual benefits. [A partnership in which only one partner derives benefits is unhealthy and likely to fail.]
  • Transparency promotes healthy partnerships. Making sure that roles and expectations are discussed and agreed, and then clearly stated and documented, avoids misunderstandings later.
  • ILRI will support effective management of partnerships at all levels, through valuing and helping to develop the skills of ILRI staff in managing partnerships and defining and recognizing good performance, and by allocating the time and resources needed for effective partnership management.
  • ILRI is committed to the supremacy of performance over politics, seniority and hierarchy in partnerships. It will operate in the least bureaucratic and hierarchic way possible to ensure efficient, effective, accountable services and provide space for innovative and entrepreneurial high-performing staff while maintaining inclusiveness and equal opportunity.

The CARES principles were developed while recognizing the potential of the considerations below to inspire new principles for ILRI:

  1. ILRI commits itself to engage with partners in an inclusive, transparent and trustworthy manner where credits are shared with integrity and obligations are implemented in a mutually accountable way while being fully committed to the impacts and strategic goals.
  2. A partnership is not an end in itself. It’s a means. We invest in partnerships where we see there is synergy and added value in partnering – though we do recognize that in many cases for ILRI work we need the help of partners. (see old principle #2)
  3. This means that every partnership goes through a life cycle. And sometimes it dies, because the partnership has achieved its goal. Paying attention to our partnerships is key (it is to ensure the garden of our science is kept well blooming).
  4. There are different mandates of partnerships (institutional, strategic, project-based), different natures of partnership (contractor, equal partner, service provider), different structures, different scales (local, sub-national, national, regional, global) and different purposes (research [upstream or applied], innovation delivery, national agri-food systems, global development innovation)). This complex typology means we can’t look at all partnerships through a standardized approach but need to understand them well when we embark on them.
  5. No partnership should be started without a clear picture of the objectives of that partnership, the rationale for it, the mutual benefits and added value, the clear roles and responsibilities of each partner, and the mechanisms of management and accountability.
  6. Any partnership is slowly built and easily destroyed – it needs an attitude of mutual respect, curiosity, willingness to understand and learn from.
  7. Of particular importance in this picture of mutual respect are dimensions of power imbalance, different culture and attitude carried through. These should be clarified early on and if need be should be part of the ongoing conversations among partners to keep partnerships healthy.
  8. A healthy partnership also takes an approach of careful nurturing, with principles supporting ongoing transparency and communication to develop trust over time, even beyond projects.
  9. The management of partnerships happens through: adequate people (capacities), systems and processes, both from us and from our partners. We need to pay attention to all of these mechanisms. And these cover management, financing/funding, HR, legal, comms, M&E, capacity development areas.
  10. Everyone is responsible – in their attitude at partner events and in partner activities – for the image that ILRI projects as a partner. But specific people should be appointed to follow specific partnerships (and to ensure accountability mechanisms are in place and followed).
  11. Partnership management is an ongoing concern that means we need to develop partnership accountability mechanisms: a) for ourselves as ILRI staff appraised, b) with our partners through regular partnership health checks and c) as an institute reviewing our partnership approach and strategy to see how effective our partnerships are and how we are effective ourselves with those.
  12. Partnership management is also an ongoing concern for ILRI as a whole, meaning that ILRI will support the development of partnership management capacity of its staff (old principle #5).
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