*EPF412 10/09/2003
Byliner: NGOs Join Partnerships in Search of Development Solutions
(Organizations advised to choose partners carefully) (1600)

The Bush Administration believes that partnerships between donor and developing countries, international agencies, non-governmental organizations, businesses, and other stakeholders must be a critical component of a global strategy for countries seeking to fight poverty and provide economic opportunities for all their people. The United States remains and will continue to be the largest bilateral donor to the developing world.

Once enacted, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) will increase U.S. core official development assistance by 50 percent over three years, to a total of $15,000 million annually starting in fiscal year 2006. MCA is predicated on the importance of partnerships in leveraging resources for development, since the development record of the past few decades shows that enduring growth and prosperity are built less on official development assistance than on open markets, increased trade, sustainable budget policies, and strong support for individual entrepreneurship.

Governments and civil society need to work cooperatively to allow the private sector to act as the engine of growth and job creation. A variety of private sources -- non-governmental organizations (NGOs), private voluntary organizations, foundations, corporations, the higher education community, and even individuals, many through remittances -- now account for 80 percent of total capital flows to developing countries. A U.S. Commerce Department study two years ago showed that, since the 1960s, private capital flows to these countries jumped from $15,000 million to $326,000 million annually.

In country after country, there are many examples of how new alliances -- and the leveraging of private sector and other non-governmental resources -- are forging a better future for families and communities. The article that follow serves as a brief guide to how public-private partnerships are formed, the basis for their success, and how countries that wish to benefit from partnerships can best form and sustain them.

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NGOs and Partnerships
By Christopher Conte

(The author, Christopher Conte, is a freelance writer based in the Washington, D.C. area.)

In a new study for the United Nations, the British consulting firm SustainAbility contends that the new century is producing a profound "paradigm shift" in the role non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play in the international arena. Once largely outsiders, NGOs increasingly can be found on the inside, joining forces with government and business to address the problems of the developing world. "Many NGOs are moving beyond a culture of criticism to one of engagement with business and other partners in search of solutions," says Gavin Power, public affairs director for the U.N. Global Compact, a United Nations initiative that sponsored the research.

The change should come as no surprise. NGOs have much to offer development partnerships, including considerable expertise in development, vast experience with social programs and close ties to underdeveloped communities. They also have much to gain; government agencies and private companies can provide resources and technical assistance that will help NGOs turn demonstration projects into large-scale reforms.

Many NGOs approach the idea of forming partnerships with caution, though. Eager to maintain their watchdog status and their freedom to innovate, they fear being swallowed or co-opted by partners who often are larger, wealthier and more powerful. How can NGOs work with other organizations without losing their own independence? NGOs that have taken the plunge have a number of suggestions:

-- Pick your partners carefully.

There is little risk of being co-opted if partners genuinely share the same goals. NGOs can assess possible partners by reviewing their annual reports, examining what other social or philanthropic projects they have undertaken, and looking to see whether they subscribe to global standards for social responsibility. Ultimately, though, the judgment must be based on a more direct assessment of whether prospective partners share the same values -- not just in theory but when it comes to specifics. "You have to make sure that the program being implemented doesn't contradict or violate any basic precepts on which you stand," explains Mark Pomar, president of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). IREX helps place foreign citizens in U.S. universities. It has learned from experience that one key to successful exchange programs is a requirement that participants be selected by objective, independent panels; this arrangement helps ensure the most qualified students are chosen -- a guarantee crucial to winning the participation of universities. So, if a government wants to select exchange participants itself, IREX won't work with it, for fear of undermining the trust it has carefully cultivated with universities.

-- Understand your partners' needs.

Different players need different things from partnerships. Governments, for instance, often need to show quick, tangible results. So NGOs, which tend to take a long-term perspective, need to work with governments on defining meaningful outcomes -- including intermediate benchmarks -- by which projects can be judged. Private companies, meanwhile, often want to see how a project helps advance their own corporate goals. So NGOs need to show businesses that participation in a project will promote corporate aims -- for instance, by enhancing a company's reputation, creating a stronger market for its goods or helping it to attract employees.

Each NGO must decide for itself whether it can accommodate a partner without sacrificing its basic principles. But sometimes, compromise leads to changes that help everybody. When Conservation International, an environmental NGO, began talking with Starbucks in 1999 about the need to protect habitats for songbirds in coffee-growing regions of Central and South America, it wanted the coffee-maker to pledge to buy only coffee raised in songbird-friendly conditions. Starbucks, dubious that high-quality coffee could be grown in the shady environments songbirds need, offered instead to pay for a pilot project that would explore new, more environmentally friendly ways to grow coffee beans.

Conservation International accepted the challenge, working with farmers in Mexico to devise new growing techniques. A satisfied Starbucks bought 810,000 kilograms of shade-grown coffee last year, and agreed to support projects to promote the same farming methods in Colombia and Peru. "This shows that working with business does work, and that you can bring about change that not only benefits the environment, but also these businesses," says Conservation International spokesman Jason Anderson.

-- Work out the details.

Given differences in organizational cultures and standards, prospective partners should spell out -- preferably, in writing -- the goals, expected outcomes, standards of evaluation and timetables for the projects they undertake. "There has to be a solid amount of negotiation and communication about the project from the very beginning, leading to a memorandum of understanding so that everybody is clear," says Mary McClymont, president of InterAction, an alliance of international development and humanitarian NGOs.

-- Make sure employees buy in.

Partnerships can fail if the rank-and-file don't support them. "You can't just jump into it," says Linda Pfeiffer, president of INMED, a Sterling, Virginia NGO that helps broker partnerships between the private companies and NGOs. "You first have to make sure your own organization is behind you."

The same principle holds for the employees of corporate partners. Some partnerships collapse because NGOs negotiated with corporate headquarters but failed to build ties to country managers and individual plant managers. "You can't have a partnership that really works well if it is just negotiated and carried out at one level," Pfeiffer argues. "All these people are genuinely interested in doing good things, but they have different levels of interest and different motivations. You've really got to work at all these levels."

-- Include community partners.

International development projects are unlikely to succeed unless they have strong local support. Charles Cox, director of Latin American and Caribbean Programs at ACDI/VOCA, a U.S.-based clearinghouse for agricultural volunteers, advises consulting closely with local and national government officials. "If you keep local authorities involved and informed, they can clear a lot of roadblocks for you," he notes. "But if you bypass them, they can get really testy."

It also is crucial to work with locally-based NGOs. They know their own communities better than outsiders, and therefore are an invaluable source of ideas and information on how to make programs work. Moreover, local NGOs will still be working in communities after specific projects are over; only by engaging them and helping them build up their own capabilities will development partners be able to ensure that the results of projects are sustained over the long run.

To ensure the sustainability of development projects, Cox urges partners to make sure that their local NGO partners are financially sound. And many development experts say it's best to require them to make some financial contribution to projects in which they participate; even if the contribution is small, experience shows that having a financial stake greatly increases their commitment to the projects.

Resources

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) offers a variety of resources for NGOs interested in participating in development partnerships. Especially noteworthy are "Tools for Alliance Builders," developed by its Global Development Alliance, and "Designing and Managing Partnerships between U.S. and Host-Country Entities," published by its Center for Development Information and Evaluation.

The World Bank maintains a portion of its Web site devoted to civil society (http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/CSO/0,,pagePK:220469~theSitePK:228717,00.html). Its Business Partners for Development Initiative published "Putting Partnering to Work," (http://www.bpdweb.org/products.htm), which includes a set of recommendations for NGOs (http://www.bpdweb.org/docs/ngo5of5.pdf). InterAction describes itself as the largest alliance of international development and humanitarian NGOs, with more than 160 members operating in developing countries (http://www.interaction.org/).

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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