Write up on Good practices:

Managing partnerships so as to generate reciprocal empowerment amongst all levels of stakeholders

A component of the Project “Vocational education and training for inclusive growth for tribal communities in East Indian states of Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa” in cooperation with EuropeAid.

Development work is done in cooperation. Large projects like VET must be implemented in partnership even when the contract with the EU is done by a single organization. In this case the challenge is to get other stakeholders on-board who will contribute to the success of the project and the achievement of project objectives - Namely employers, financial institutions, Government, other civil society organizations, etc.

But how how do we ensure that it is a true partnership? And what makes a really effective partnership? The challenge is to ensure a two-way flow of benefits between Organization and the partners. In a successful partnership knowledge and skills are shared, which means Organization are learning from each other and maintain constructive, respectful relationships.

The partner approach of Welthungerhilfe, which is geared towards long-term partnerships according to common analysis and objectives, but also framed by clear standards when it comes to impact-orientation, M&E and donor compliance.

This document summarize the activity of partnership management carried out by DWHH and its partner organizations as one of the components of the EU co-funded action “Vocational education and training for vulnerable and marginalised groups in India”, that is a component of the EU sponsored programme Vocational education and training for vulnerable and marginalised groups in India.

The overall objective of the action is to contribute to reduced unemployment and inclusive growth in rural areas and to complement to the achievement of MDG 1.

The specific objectives are:

Increased access to skills and training for tribal, Dalit and OBC adolescents and youths in selected BRGF districts of three Eastern states
Established institutional arrangements for planning, quality assurance, certification and linkages.

Partner Organizations of DWHH are Center for World Solidarity (CWS), Development Research Communication & Services Centre (DRCSC) and Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama (RKM).

Target groups are: 4600 adolescents and youth in the age group of 15 to 35 from amongst Scheduled Castes (SCs)/Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Castes in selected BRGF districts of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal

Welthungerhilfe Practice in Partner Management

Welthungerhilfe is active in India since more than 40 years and has exclusively worked through a partnership approach. However, the office in Delhi has only been established in 2006. Before that, Welthungerhilfe has monitored partners and interventions from far (Bonn Headquarter) and involved much less in planning, monitoring and also managing the programs than recent times. Some of the long-serving staff emphasize that the relative freedom of the partners has led to good innovations and that many projects were also good. And likewise some of the long-standing partners miss the times when donors only came every one or two years for a few days and otherwise let them operate according to their ideas.

However, the professionalization of the sector, decentralization of donors and increased administrative standards has gradually led Welthungerhilfe to be closer to the partner organizations and projects. While offices in other countries have already opened in the early 90s, the Delhi Office was only opened in 2006 when a large EU project with more than 20 partner organizations had to be implemented. Since then, interaction with partners has become more intensive, there is a move towards more rights-based analysis and interventions and a new generation of development practitioners have been taking charge of affairs. Gradually following good practices were developed by the team and are also characteristic for the VET project:

When planning, DWHH followS a longer-term program approach with a number of partners that have different characteristics and strengths and can complement each other; programs have at least 3 partners, with each partner implementing a manageable budget (usually EUR 50,000 to 100,000 per year). In the case of the VET program DWHH haS 4 partners.
DWHH always trIES to bring also new partners on board that could be innovative. There is a systematic assessment process for those new partners.
All partners share the common objectives of the program. Therefore DWHH has common planning workshops before proposal preparation and continuous emphasis on the objectives thereafter.
DWHH has clear standards on planning, monitoring and evaluation, which include, among others, developing impact chains, common baseline and evaluation procedures, capacity building on community monitoring, annual review and planning workshops etc.
On networking and Knowledge Management, DWHH tries to play a guiding role for the partners and take a lead on overall program activities, including information sharing, common capacity building workshops, publications, facilitating policy events etc.
DWHH puts adequate support structures in place with highly qualified staff. Mostly one Welthungerhilfe program staff is responsible for 3-6 partner projects and is expected to spend considerable time in the field. Donor compliance is also ensured by the finance officer, who has mostly around 10 projects to follow and gives guidance also at the field level.