Tool 1
Partner Assessment and Partnership Development Plan
Introduction
As stated in IBIS’ Partnership Strategy (2008),a Participatory PartnerAssessment with all civil society partners will constitute a fundamental part of IBIS’ partnerships in the south. This assessment serves as a fundamental instrument to establish a Partnership Development Plan containing concrete challenges to act upon for each partner and IBIS.
Thistoolbox paper aims at providing IBIS programme staff and partners with a functional methodology that can be used forthe initial assessment of a partner organisation. Further, the approach provided in these guidelines also serves as a tool to be used annually during the Annual Joint Project Monitoring (Step 3)in orderto learn from, measure and validatethe desired progress and prioritize actions for the next period.
IBIS’ programmes and projects in developing countries support civil society organisations to work for social change and improved living conditions and rights for marginalized men and women. For civil society to play a serious professional and political role in promoting social change, it requires well organised and legitimate organisations that are constantly learning and reshaping their performance in order to reach their objectives and set up new ones together with their constituency. This is where the Partner Assessmentbecomes useful. The Partner Assessmentrepresents a very strong tool to assess the present “health” of an organisation in relation to her stated objectives, and secondly serveas a baseline to establish a prioritized and forward-looking development plan for the organisation.
There is no single or right way to conduct a Partner Assessment. Therefore, it is of outmost importance that the suggestedmethodology outlined below is considered as a point of departure for tailoring an assessment approach that respects the organisation’s present situation, size, thematic and geographic focus and time and resources available for the process. This means that the assessment of a small rural community based NGO/CBOwill be very limited and focused according to the need and reality of the partner, while an assessment of a larger national and constituency basedpartner organisation will normally include far more aspects in the partner assessment process. The time spent on an assessment varies from 2 hours – 2 days according to the type of organisation.
Common for all Partner Assessments is that they should rest on the following overall principles:
-Participatory process
-Empowering for the partner and for IBIS
-Gender focused
-Cost effective
-Learning oriented
-Action oriented
Living up to these overall principles, a Partner Assessment process can be a strengthening process in itself that spurs new energy and focus into the organisation. Done insensitively and without bearing these principles in mind, an assessment process can cause frustration and resentment in an organisation. Therefore, a Partner Assessment should be designed and conducted carefully.
The Partner Assessment is constituted by the following three steps:
- Develop a common understanding of the Partner Assessment and its purposes between IBIS and the Partner organisation based onthe above mentioned principles
-Ensure participation
-Build ownership and joint clarity
-Other
- Clarify expectations and concerns
-Look at previous Partner Assessments for lessons learned
-Discuss benefits, time consumption and cost regarding the assessment
-Decide who will have access to the data collected and final recommendations of the Partner Assessment
-Other
- Which stakeholders should be involved
-Partner staff, board, members
-IBIS staff, external stakeholders
-Other
- Decide who will facilitate the Partner Assessment process
-IBIS facilitator together with a group of partner representatives
-Internal assessment supported by IBIS
-External facilitator with a support group composed by partner and IBIS staff
-Decide schedule and logistics, roles and responsibilities
-Other
- Analysis of relevant documents and reports
-Project document
-Vision and strategy documents of the organisation
-Last year Partnership Development Plan
-Administrative guidelines (Country and general – FIMM)
-Other relevant documents
- Elements toinclude in the Partner Assessment
-Emphasize participation in the process of selecting the elements to include in the Partner Assessment.
-Don’t include all aspects of the organisation’s life in the Partner Assessment. Prioritize the most important issues according to time available, context, size and concrete objectives of the organisation.
-The below elements are meant as an inspiration to what could be included in the Partner Assessment under specific categories. Both the partner organisation and IBIS can suggest elements to be focussed uponin the assessment.
- Possible elements to include in the Partner Assessment
Vision, values and strategy
-Does the organisation have a clearly defined vision and strategies?
-Is development of vision and strategy a participatory process including staff, constituency and stakeholders?
-Are board, staff, members and stakeholders committed to the vision and strategies?
-How is the approach to gender equality treated at a strategic level?
- / Human resources & competencies
-Level of professional competencies within main working areas including financial and administrative personnel.
-Advocacy competencies in the organisation.
-Level of staff turn over in the organisation.
-Perception of staff commitment
Management and internal systems
-Level of democratic leadership in the organisation.
-Level of clarity of roles and responsibilities
-Degree and quality of documentation and learning. / Project/program performance
-Relation between project/program work and overall strategies and vision?
-Is there a clear working plan?
-Is the organisation reaching its objectives?
-Projects’ contribution to change for beneficiaries
-Geographical or sector focus of core work?
-How is gender equality included in programme work?
Financial resources & administration
-Balance between staff cost and activities?
-Level of dependency on external funding?
-Regular financial management reporting?
-Are financial procedures described and followed?
-Are internal controls and segregation of duties in place?
-General perception of cost effectiveness?
-Level of upward and downward accountability?
-Are accounts audited annually byan audit company? / External relations; constituency and alliances
-Relation to and inclusion of constituency.
-Relationship and level of coordination with other organisations/stakeholders working with the same thematic/political space.
-Alliance building competencies
-Relation to and influence on decision makers
-Previous experience and relations to external donors.
- The selected elements to be assessed can be analysed by using the SWOT matrix below
-In smaller NGOs or CBOs, a dialogue-based SWOT analysis of the selected elements can be a very good solution.
-In larger NGOs or CBOs, data collection through interviews or workshops with different groups of stakeholders can be necessary to come out with a thorough understanding of the organisation’s health and the challenges it is facing.
SWOT Analysis table:
- The Partner Assessment facilitator and representatives from the organisation analyse findings
- A workshop with participation of all staff (leadership, staff and/or members) is organised to feed back findings and recommendations and in order to validate them together with staff of the organisation. This workshop is also referred to in Tool 3: Annual Project Monitoring Event.
- Other assessments tools can be used if they adhere to the overall principles outlined on page 1, and extract both strengths and weaknesses related to internal and external aspects of the organisation
As a result of the Partner Assessment process described above, the process is finalized by the partner organisation and IBIS in close cooperation elaborating a Partnership Development Plan.
In this elaboration process, the partner organisation in close coordination with IBIS, select the most important challenges to be included the Partnership Development Plan. The plan should aim at including both project related issues and elements related to organisational strengthening.
The Partnership Development Plan can for example include some of the following elements:
- Capacity building within specific themes:
- Education methods and policy
- Participatory governance methods and policy
- Individual and collective rights
- Gender equality
- Advocacy skills
- Planning, monitoring and evaluation
- Components of organisation development:
- Leadership
- Networking, learning south - south and alliance building
- Constituency building
- Strategy development
- Internal and external communication
- Partnership relations between IBIS and the partner.
- Facilitation of South-South coordination
- South – North solidarity links and advocacy
A clear time plan, division of tasks and responsibilities between IBIS and the partner in relation to the prioritised elements constitute a central part of the development plan. As part of IBIS’ added value to the partnership, IBIS staff will directly provide or facilitate specific elements of the capacity building stated in the development plan, others will be provided through intermediaries.
The agreed development plan is monitored and renegotiated annually and will establish the basis for the partnership agreement that IBIS formulate with each partner. As such, the Partner Assessment and the Partnership Development Plan are two vital elements of the relationship between IBIS and the partner. It represents a point of departure for monitoring progress and for ensuring that the partnership is constantly adding concrete value to the partner organisation. Furthermore, both the assessment process and the resulting plan are key elements in the annual project- and program monitoring cycle.
Finally, the assessment and the plan also constituteimportant instruments for decisions on gradual phasing out of the interrelationship (exit strategy) if the desired results are not reached or if cooperation is no longer necessary.
Lastly, it is important to review the Partner Assessment process and extract learning points for the coming year. See also tool 3 describing step 3 in the annual TP monitoring cycle.
Revised January 2012
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