TPI’s action research programmes push the boundaries of the theory and practice of partnering; support the development of tools and guides; and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience of partnership practitioners worldwide.
Improving the practice of partnering worldwide requires a dedicated process of learning from experience, researching partnership activity and capturing new knowledge. The Partnering Initiative is committed to supporting this process through its work in partnership evaluation, collaborative research and active publication. TPI not only captures, analyses and disseminates learning from its own projects – it also works with leading institutions to facilitate original research and to contribute to the wider community of partnership practitioners and theorists.
For a full list of our research papers, case studies, and other materials, please see our publications page.
Unleashing the Power of Business: a Roadmap
TPI’s partnering ‘Roadmap’ sets out a systematic approach to engaging with business as a partner in development. It recommends five essential areas for action within which government, development agencies, business organisations and civil society each have their roles to play, and sets out milestones towards the full engagement of business as a partner in the post-2015 development agenda.
Platforms for Partnership Action: Emerging good practice
Multi-stakeholder platforms or hubs can systematically bring together companies, government, international organisations and civil society, align interests and support innovative collaborative action to achieve both business and development goals. Platforms may focus on a range of issues which require multi-sectoral action, for example, on tackling specific social issues (such as nutrition, education or health), creating new markets, developing sustainable value chains, supporting more inclusive business or addressing natural resource constraints.
Partnerships for Education
In partnership with UNESCO, the World Bank and with support from BG Group, TPI conducted research into harnessing the power of business as a way of improving the quality of education provision. Education is a fundamental pillar of sustainable development and underpins all of our efforts for enduring prosperity and economic growth. Yet, achieving quality ‘Education for All’ remains a major global challenge.
Research on Business and NGO Collaboration
Business – NGO partnerships are increasingly being used to tackle some of the world’s most pressing development issues, with the way that NGOs and the private sector work evolving significantly over the last decade. TPI has conducted various pieces of research in the over this time examining how partnerships have become more sophisticated, strategic and aligned to business objectives.
Partnerships against chronic disease
The incidence of chronic disease is rising dramatically throughout the world with, according to the World Health Organisation, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes, causing an estimated 36 million deaths each year – 63% of all deaths globally. TPI believes that the only way to achieve the necessary fundamental shifts across society is an ‘all-of-society’ approach to bring together the power and reach of all sectors: government, business and civil society.
Partnering with Governments programme
The ‘Partnering with Governments’ (PwG) programme was developed to explore how to build the capacity of business and government in sub-Saharan Africa to collaborate more effectively in addressing sustainable development challenges. The programme has been active in a number of countries, including Gabon, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia. PwG was a collaboration between the IBLF, GTZ (the German international sustainable development agency), and a number of major businesses including Microsoft, Rio Tinto, SAP, Shell and the Shell Foundation.
Case Study Project
The Case Study Project was a one-year programme developed by The Partnering Initiative in collaboration with the Alcan Prize for Sustainability and SEED (Supporting Entrepreneurs for Environment and Development) in 2005. The project developed a number of tools and methodologies for data collection, verification, analysis and presentation and tested them on a range of partnership case studies from widely different contexts.