Reflections and learnings: Lessons in partnering

This 'Dive deeper' series give readers a chance to learn more from Water for Women's experience and should be read in conjunction with our more detailed Impact Report.

“A successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. These inclusive partnerships built upon principles and values, a shared vision, and shared goals that place people and the planet at the centre, are needed at the global, regional, national and local level[1]”.

The term partnership is now embedded within development vernacular, liberally applied across a wide range of development modalities. In practice the term is commonly used in a passive form, to describe the modality through which development investments are delivered. In reality though, genuine partnership moves well beyond business as usual to an intentional and active way of engaging  so as to foster collaborative leadership and bring the efforts of a diverse set of actors into coherence. Considered in this form partnership is dynamic and changeable but far from intangible.

Between 2018 and 2025, the Water for Women Fund (WfW) invested AUD159.9 million towards supporting improved health, gender equality and well-being in 16 Asia Pacific countries through climate-resilient and socially inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) projects and research. 

Partnership was central to WfW's design and ways of working. In effect, it was the theory of action of how  to leverage the diverse capabilities of  10 Australian and international civil society organisations (CSOs), 5 research organisations (ROs), 1 donor (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)) and 1 Fund Coordinator (FC) to collectively achieve individual project and WfW wide outcomes.

From the outset, WfW invested in implementing a partnering approach, and concurrently seeking to understand how this contributed to meaningful collaboration and development outcomes. 

This thought piece builds on six years of systematic data collection and reflection on WfW's partnering experience, collected through partnership brokering events, health checks, interviews, partner surveys and reflection workshops.

It's intent is to highlight some of the key artefacts and lessons of the WfW experience and share practical examples of how sustained and intentional consideration of partnering frameworks and reimagination of business processes and ways of working can shift the norms of international development practice.

Partnering Intent

Water for Women's program logic, positions partnering as a foundational strategy for building collaborative research, learning and advocacy to generate and share new evidence and to promote innovation and emerging practice in transformative climate resilient, inclusive and sustainable WASH.

Achieving such transformative change however does not come about by simply providing resources to organisations to implement projects through a single funding mechanism, nor through bringing partners together for externally determined learning events. It became very clear early on that sustained and intentional actions were required to create the depth of engagement and collaborative leadership to drive  shifts in policy and practice.

... partnership is an ongoing working relationship where risks and benefits are shared. Partnerships are ...conscious and planned relationships that are based on principles of equity, transparency, and mutual accountability. In practical terms this means each partner’s involvement in co-creating programs and/or actions, committing tangible resource contributions and mutual accountability[2]

In order to bring this partnership to life, the Water for Women Partnering Approach was co-created by all partners. Key features of the approach included:

• a focus on partnering at the governance level through collaborative leadership.
• co-creation of partnering principles to govern the work that partners did together.
• engaging an independent partnership broker to work in service of the partnership across all stages of the program life cycle.
• integrating partnering into the MEL framework and whole of fund level sensemaking.
• investing flexible resources to support collaboration and ensure that all partners could engage.
• integrating regular reflection and health check process into planning and strategy setting.

Evolution of the Water for Women Partnership

Before delving into the lessons that have emerged from WfW's investment in partnering, it is valuable to look at how the partnership has evolved over time.

Partner perceptions regarding the extent to which the partnership worked to each of its principles shifted over time suggesting that these intentional efforts have resulted in positive changes in the way that partners came together to deliver value through the Fund. The chart below illustrates this change.

Water for Women Approaches to Partnering

Partner health check and Fund level sensemaking processes suggest that a number of approaches contributed to this change. A few of these are presented below.

1: Respect the unique drivers, mandates and ways of working of each partner

 The WfW partnering approach recognised that each partner is unique, and brings with them a wide range of relationships. These relationships are in turn similarly unique to those partners, and the contexts in which they work, and serve different purposes. From the start, WfW recognised that determining how these "downstream" relationships should be shaped, would co-opt WfW partners own partnerships and undermine their autonomy over those.

It was agreed that the core focus of the Fund’s partnering efforts would be on the relationships between the key actors of the fund - DFAT, the Fund Coordinator, and the CSO and ROs partners with whom the Fund has a direct contractual relationship.

This did not mean that "downstream partnerships" were not important. It simply meant that the responsibility for good partnering at the project level remained vested in the CSOs and ROs themselves,  in line with their own partnering principles, ways of working and business processes.

In essence this approach focussed on creating alignment between partners in the areas of shared concern while honouring the unique assets that brought the partners together in first place. In other words

"we worked to ensuring that all the canoes were pointed in the same direction rather than tethering them all together and routing them down the same path." (Partnership Broker)

This provides a strong message for donors and development contractors/intermediaries, that their concern should be in investing partnering efforts at the right level, and yielding control over how partners do their own work.

2: Fit for Partnering Governance

"I am feeling positive about the collective direction for exploring and working on inclusive, climate resilient WASH for the extension phase. While there are a lot of unknowns, there is a feeling of trust in working on this together." (FPG member)

Moving to a partnering approach requires shifting relationships from command and control centred governance processes most commonly applied to international development projects, to more collaborative relationship  governing frameworks that help partners connect leadership with operations (projects), assess changing contexts and take data informed decisions, work to shared interests, strengthen dialogue, and mutual accountability.

At their very first meeting, Water for Women partners transformed the Steering Group mechanism proposed in the WfW design by taking a blank sheet approach to creating a framework that would  provide partners with a more active and strategic role in Fund governance. A number of factors were important in establishing the Fund Partners Group (FPG):

• Clarity of membership - FPG members comprised one representative from each CSO, RO, DFAT and the FC, and each had equal seating at the table.
• Clarity of purpose - the FPG Purpose Statement set a framework for partner led governance, highlighting the role of partners in strategic leadership through setting Fund direction, leading the Learning Agenda, Fund level sensemaking and leading policy dialogue, and advocacy to amplify learnings from research and programming.
• Equity - all partners had the right to a voice and the responsibility to lead.
• Business process reform - Fit for purpose business processes and ways of working that reflected and helped to uphold the partnering principles were developed and have guided the Fund's approach to partnering and strategic governance.

3: Take practical actions to shift power, build equity and collaborative leadership

"There is a very intentional and purpose driven approach to the partnership...  many practical solutions have been developed and moved to action in field implementation." (FPG Member)

Building equity and shifting power requires intentional effort from all partners to reimagine how they work together, creating new ways of working, and business structures that challenge traditional power dynamics and foster collaborative leadership.

With 1 donor, 10 CSOs, 5 research organisations and 1 Fund Coordinator (with a large team of Advisors and program support staff) building equity was always going to be a challenge for the WfW partnership.

The process of building equity started with

• understanding the value of partnering (in relation to the purpose of the Fund)
• respecting and honouring the individual mandates and autonomy of each partner
• recognising the unique value that each partner brought to the partnership
• acknowledging the asymmetrical power relationships inherent in international development
• establishing business processes that sought to distribute power between all partners.

From the onset, Fund partners acknowledged the power imbalances that emerge through traditional ways of doing business where certain partners held structural power as donors and/or contract holders; greater voice due to the opportunity to have more people attending meetings; or because they had different levels of convening power or access to dialogue spaces.

Partners articulated an ambition to work towards shifting these power imbalances and recognised that this would require a departure from standard meeting procedures. In response, they began experimenting with new ways of coming together aimed at fostering equity, mutual accountability, and collaborative leadership.

• One voice

Open dialogue between all partners was important for leveraging the partners' diverse capabilities and enabling informed decision making around shared interests.

Practically however, DFAT and FC would almost always have a larger number of people in the room than CSOs and ROs due to the number of technical advisers and FC staff. For this reason, partners agreed that when they came together, all those attending meetings were welcome to engage in dialogue, however when a decision was required, each partner organisation held a single voice.

The use of this business process created better visibility over how decisions were being made, what interests were being represented and balanced the structural inequity between the donor and FC and the CSO and RO partners.

• FPG focal points

A rotating leadership model was adopted in which two partners (one CSO and one RO) were nominated to act as focal points for the FPG for a six month period. Focal points chaired FPG meetings, played a key role in agenda setting, communication between partners and engaging across the partnership to address extraordinary business, which provided partners with greater procedural control over meeting processes.

 Induction and onboarding new actors in the partnership

Partnerships are made up of people. Dynamics shift as people rotate through roles and organisations, as old actors leave and new actors come into the partnership. Having co-created the Partnering Approach, principles and partnering processes, it was important to create opportunities that would bring new actors into the partnership and its unique ways of working in a meaningful way that valued their contribution and reinforced their place at the table. New actors were invited to attend a session with the Partnership Broker to discuss the Partnering Approach and ways of working. This were at times attended by focal points and the FC team.

"Just the fact that we dedicated substantial time to working through the purpose is a demonstration that we value alignment and that we are responsive to the changing needs of the program and the partners." (FPG Partner)

4: Regular Health Check and Partnering Dialogue

Designed around a reflective practice model, annual health check processes enabled partners to reflect and process experience and information in a layered way - individual, organisational and whole of partnership level - to deepen understanding, surface lessons and dialogue and inform strategy setting.

Collecting data in this way created space for enabling individuals to first reflect on their personal and then organisational contributions and experience of partnering and what that delivered for them, before bringing that to the whole of partnership level.

Health check processes centred around the partnering principles and the extent to which partners felt they were aligning to those. The partner survey enabled the Partnership Broker to make visible to the partners how they were working to the principles as well as track the evolution of the partnership over time and how it added value throughout the life of the Fund.

This process combined with qualitative reflections, provided partners with an opportunity to open a conversation about any changes from year to year, what might be behind these and  what might be done to  strengthen the partnering efforts.

Finally, brokered health check dialogue enabled Fund partners to surface and work through challenges, identify solutions and, importantly, link these to planning.

5: Promoting Diverse Leadership

“I feel able to contribute well, through the learning agenda, through meetings, through co-leadership of global events with the Fund and joint outputs - these capitalise on complementary skills and collective voice.” (FPG Member)

WfW's Partnering Approach reflected its commitment to gender transformative practice by affirmatively promoting women's leadership within its own internal business systems.

While at the start of the Fund, FPG positions were tied to key positions held by FPG members within their own organisations,  partners committed to considering gender as a key criteria when determining who would best represent them on the FPG.

At the first meeting there was parity in women and men on the FPG. This shifted incrementally throughout the life of partnership and by 2024, women represented 77% of the FPG.

The extent to which partners felt that WfW was representing diverse interests was reflected on through health check processes. This not only provided a measured value for diversity but ensured that promoting diversity was part of the annual partnering dialogue and embedded within partnering planning with effect.

6: Working with a Partnership Broker

From the outset the WfW architecture included a role for an independent Accredited Partnership Broker, engaged to work in service of the partnership. Uniquely, the Broker was engaged against a dedicated budget and worked across the whole program cycle. This provided flexibility and continuity, and meant that the Broker's role was concurrently proactive and responsive.

The Broker undertook a wide range of roles throughout the life of the Fund including support to partner engagement; design of collaborative processes; facilitation/brokering of events and conversations; co-organisation of FPG meetings through liaising with focal points; supporting partners to navigate 'sticky issues'; undertaking health checks and partnership reporting.  The Broker also supported the FC and DFAT to reflect on their own ways of working and provided coaching to explore new ways of working and the design of business processes to better support equity and collaboration.

In summary a number of key lessons have emerged through Water for Women's partnering experience:

• How matters.  Effective partnerships focus on how the work is done.
• Change happens at the speed of trust. Working with positive intent, investing in building open and transparent relationships establish the preconditions of trust and shared understanding that allow for meaningful collaboration and help partners and programs adapt to shocks to the system.
• Effective partnerships are not about getting on but getting on with it! Shared purpose, alignment and difficult conversations go hand in hand.
• Most of the time, co-creation means stepping out of the way. Donors and development contractors hold the structural power that determine how business is done. The decision to wield or yield that power, and to explore new ways of doing business is the key to opening opportunities for new ways of working that lead to change.
• Building equity requires attention to challenging and dismantling our old ways of working, genuinely valuing the contributions of others and creating space for them to engage.
• Context is the environment in which strategy thrives - Contexts and drivers evolve - partnerships need to adapt their ways of working and business processes in response to these.
• Partnership Brokers can support partnering by maintaining an objective focus on process and surfacing the partnering story as it is evolving.