The Partnership Brokers Association

Remote Partnering – a new website (remotepartnering.org) has been launched to bring attention to this important and neglected topic. PBA has initiated this project in partnership with Action Against Hunger, British Red Cross, PAX for Peace and the Partnerships Resource Centre. The first phase involved a number of desk-top and action research activities and has resulted in a new publication: ‘The Current Status of Remote Partnering’.

If you are interested in sharing your experience, giving feedback on the publication or getting involved – either as an individual or on behalf of an organisation –  in this project let us know via info@partnershipbrokers.org.

PBA Director, Ros Tennyson, gave a 5 minute ‘lightening talk’ in the final session of the Global Summit on Community Philanthropy (#ShiftThePower, December 2^nd, Johannesburg) – she said that partnering would be the key to ‘shifting the power’ IF partnerships were truly transformational in their intent and process management. Download the PBA paper Shifting The Power, and Ros Tennyson’s presentation.

PEP (Promoting Effective Partnering), offers knowledge and resources on partnering to practitioners working in partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals. Through a newly created facility, people can learn about partnering, access help, share experiences and exchange ideas. Read the press release and visit www.effectivepartnering.org.

Our two most recent graduate cohorts have completed their training on opposite sides of the world – London at the end of October and Sydney at the beginning of November 2016.  Our training is the same worldwide, so wherever you choose to complete your Partnership Brokers Training, you’ll receive the same qualification and be eligible to apply for advanced training.  Contact our Training Manager (training@partnershipbrokers.org) for more information or visit our Training Programme Page.

We are in the process of moving the PBA Alumni Network to a new interactive site – in the meantime contact info@partnershipbrokers.org if you want to connect

Ros Tennyson, Director of Strategy for the Partnership Brokers Association has written a guest blog for Keystone. See why Ros thinks that in partnerships, Rules Don’t Work.

We’ve added new Partnership Brokers Training sessions in early 2017.  Visit our Training Programme page for the full list. Register your interest so you’ll be the first to know when applications are open.

On 29th June 2016, in London, 30+ alumni met to share their experiences of partnership brokering in a wide range of contexts and to explore and help to build PBA’s movement-building agenda.  Outputs from this exciting gathering will be posted shortly. Plans are under discussion for further Global Dialogues in other parts of the world where there are significant numbers of PBA alumni.

At Emerging World. All information can be accessed here: http://www.emergingworld.com/join-us

Deadline is 15 July 2016

PBA has been working with the Start Network for a number of years, and was delighted to join their annual conference this week. Ros joined the panel “How can governments work with civil society to overcome challenges” alongside Rt. Hon. Joe Clark: Former Prime Minister of Canada, Benjamin Laniado: President CADENA A.C., and Naseer Memon: CEO, Strengthening Participatory Organization.

Ros spoke about the importance of investing in partnerships, and how time poverty is a poor excuse to not take action in partnerships. She also shared her top tips to make the move towards transformation:

For more information on Start Networks annual conference, here is their blog: http://www.startnetwork.org/news-and-blogs/annual-conference-2016-live-blog

For more information on Start Networks partnership brokering experience, and case studies on the organisation: https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/case-studies/

Published as part of the Promoting Effective Partnering (PEP) project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, the report draws on the experiences of partnership brokers worldwide.  It explores the emerging lessons about partnering in diverse contexts – exploring the factors at national and local levels that impact what partnering is possible.

PBA is one of 5 partners in the project. The other 4 are: The Collective Leadership Institute, Partnerships Resource Centre, Partnerships in Practice & The Partnering Initiative.

To read the report: https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/recent-current-research/

For more information on the project, visit the PRC website: http://www.rsm.nl/prc/our-research/projects/promoting-effective-partnering-pep/

The conference took place in the Netherlands, and had keynotes from Ros Tennyson and Bruce Byiers.

‘I believe that partnering is about sharing (not mitigating) risk; about co-creating (not dictating) solutions; and embracing (not avoiding) the principles of mutuality, transparency, diversity and equity. But it seems that it is surprisingly hard to partner effectively. How can partnership brokers help? How can partnership brokers use monitoring, evaluating, learning and capacity-building approaches to make partnerships have the best possible local impact and global influence?’ Ros Tennyson

For more information on the conference please visit the website: http://www.managingforimpact.org/event/conference-partnering-success-how-me-can-strengthen-partnerships-sustainable-development

To follow on twitter use the hashtag #MEpartnering

We often hear partnership brokers asking for more case studies – more stories about what works and what doesn’t, how other partnerships work in different contexts, what’s new, and what needs to be next on the horizon. So here is your chance to contribute to the growing bank of resources for practitioners: a piece in the next issue of the only online journal dedicated to partnership brokering: Betwixt & Between.

https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/contribute-to-the-journal/

Abstracts are due on 31 March 2016, final piece is due 30 April. Why not give it a go? Never written for a journal before? our Editor, Surinder Hundal, will work with you through the process to get your piece ready for publishing.

Questions? just email us: info@partnershipbrokers.org

This is the third case study in the series of the Start Network journey – the focus this time is on the staff team and the advisors, looking at the processes of a multi-stakeholder membership model.

“We are the privileged that see everything the Start Network is doing. As alchemists, we are searching for that perfect chemical formula, but as magicians, we know intuition might just go farther, faster. So we constantly connect-the-dots between individuals, organisations, evidence, information, people. We don’t have to prove we are getting somewhere, because the evidence speaks for itself, and allows us to take the Start Network to the next level.” Matthew Kletzing, Manager: Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) team

“The case study series is important for a three reasons. First, it is as close as we have to a historical record. Second, it enables us to share our emerging experience with others who wish to learn. Third, it unveils what is ordinarily hidden behind organisational boundaries. This series contributes significantly to our legitimacy as a humanitarian system change catalyst.” Sean Lowrie, Start Network Director

Read the report here: https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/case-studies/

Visit the Start Network website: http://www.startnetwork.org/

PBA’s third case study for the START Network (January 2016) – whole series available