Dave Prescott & Darian Stibbe, The Partnering Initiative, Oxford, 2015
A Partnering Support System: The set of actors of all kinds (whether organisations, initiatives, platforms, individuals etc.) that together makes accessible the necessary support, catalysis and capacity building at the appropriate level to drive widespread development of collaborative action.
In order to achieve the SDGs, collaboration across sectors needs to take place at a scale not witnessed before. For this to happen requires the development a ‘partnering support system’ able to influence the policy environment; create mechanisms and platforms that can systematically convene stakeholders and catalyse partnerships; directly support partnerships to be as effective and impactful as possible; help organisations to become institutionally fit for partnering; and build the partnering skills and capacities of individuals.
This report creates a framework and a vision for an effectively function support system, and examines the current state of the art.
This report has been produced by The Partnering Initiative as part of Promoting Effective Partnering (PEP), with funding from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.