The Partnership Brokers Association

2014 kicked off with a flying start for PBA, bringing on both changes in the Board, and the appointment of 2 Development Directors.

The PBA Board has grown from 4 to 6. One of our original Board members– Kwasi A. Boateng has stepped down from the Board due to time commitments and to provide the opportunity for others to contribute their experience as Board Members to this ‘wonderful organisation’ (his words, not ours!). Kwasi will remain on the Members Council and an active alumnus of the organisation.We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Kwasi for his steadying presence and spirited support of PBA’s establishment and growth.

The January board meeting confirmed the appointment of 3 new Board Members.  This is in line with PBA’s drive to bring in a wealth of experience and fresh ideas to take forward our plans as a fit for purpose, small yet robust organisation. The 3 individuals are all alumni of the organisation, and come from very different backgrounds: Sam Aiboni works for Shell in Nigeria, Ian Dixon is the founding Director of Dixon Partnering Solutions and hosts the training in Australia. Marieke Hounjet is with Start Network in London. See the Governance page for a short biography of each Board Member.

In addition to strengthening the PBA Board, we have appointed 2 new Development Directors to carry forward our training and learning work.

The new Development Director for Training is Julie Mundy. With over 20 years of experience in international development, Julie has been working as an independent partnerships specialist and with PBA for many years, as a trainer and mentor with practitioners, but also as a sound advisor to PBA in its transition over the last few years. Julie is based in Australia.

Leda Stott joins us as the Development Director for Learning. Leda has been involved in partnership brokering work for many years, and has worked with us as a mentor since the beginning of the Level 2 Accreditation course. Leda is based in Spain and has an impressive track record in research and teaching about partnerships and research methodology (at EOI Business School and the Technical University of Madrid in Spain  and Oxford Brookes in the UK). She has most recently worked with us to develop the new Level 2 Research Certificate.

Julie and Leda join Ros Tennyson as Development Director of Strategy. We are very much looking forward to expanding the internationally based team, and implementing our plans over the course of the next year.

The next issue of Betwixt & Between – the  journal of partnership brokering – comes out in May and we welcome your abstracts.

This next issue is completely open – for any burning topics and developments in the profession that you would like to contribute to the brokering community.

Download the details here

We are looking for articles from practitioners in all these areas – be it frontline experience or conceptual frameworks. You don’t have to be an alumni of the Partnership Brokers Association to contribute – we welcome abstracts from all those working in this field.

If you are interested in contributing to the journal we invite your article by 1st March 2014. If you would like to contact us to discuss your piece, please email us. To view past issues of the journal: https://partnershipbrokers.org/w/journal/

To address increasingly complex needs and solve pressing challenges for which single agency solutions seem largely inadequate, new forms of multi-stakeholder collaboration are emerging across the globe.  Do they live up to expectations? Are the inevitable transaction costs involved in managing diverse (and sometimes divergent) interests worth it? Does such collaboration lead to bold steps forward or to settling for the lowest common denominator?

The Association has been working for the past few months with the Consortium of British Humanitarian Agencies (recently re-named START Network) which comprises 18 lead agencies working in the humanitarian sector who have evolved a collaborative way of working that both designs and delivers interventions and seeks to challenge and change the way the sector works for the better. We have worked with the Board and with the staff team (operating, essentially, as partnership brokers) to deepen understanding of what it takes to collaborate productively.

‘Dealing with Paradox – Stories and Lessons from the first three years of Consortium-building’ is  an output from this work. It tells the story of Consortium, from its earliest moments (conversations in a pub) through a highly successful period of ‘joined up’ aid in response to the Pakistan floods and the drought in the Horn of Africa followed by a funding crisis and how the group has subsequently worked systematically (and sometimes unsystematically) to build (and re-brand) the collaboration into a bold new global venture.

“If we can hold together no matter what comes next, we can really have huge influence on the global humanitarian architecture and make a serious difference to how aid is  delivered in future.”

Nick Gutmann, Chair, START Network

It’s a good read and has, we hope, genuine insights and lessons for others involved in this kind of venture. This is a ‘work in progress’ – watch this space for a regular (6-monthly) up-date and let us have your views on what you read.

To read an experienced humanitarian professionals blog on the piece click here

To read more publications by the Association, please click here

For more information on START Network please click here

Ros Tennyson, PBA’s Development Director is currently in Canada co-training the first Level 1 in Calgary with JS Daw & Associates. In between the training and moderating a session at the forthcoming Social Enterprise World Forum, Ros has been interviewed by SiG (Social Innovation Generation) to look at partnerships role in social change:

“collaboration is not business as usual. It takes reframed skills and it takes the kind of people who are willing to adapt and move outside their own comfort zone perhaps, for the benefit of a bigger purpose. And actually when the chips are down – however liberal or liberated we think we are – we are all fond of our comfort zones. In fact, the challenge to change towards a genuinely more collaborative model is quite a big one.”

http://www.sigeneration.ca/social-enterprise-spotlight-building-capacity-partnerships/

The 2013 Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF) will bring together 1,200 individuals from more than 30 countries and speakers from more than 20 countries.  Attendees will come from diverse backgrounds – social enterprise practitioners from all sectors, traditional non-profits, for-profit businesses, philanthropists, intrapreneurs, the public sector, support agencies, funders and investors, consultants, indigenous groups, and students – but all share a dedication to resolving the world’s most complex and confounding social challenges.

And moderating will be our very own Development Director Ros Tennyson – Culture Shock: Engaging others in your success: You are pushing the advancement of society on key issues such as empowering the disenfranchised; helping not-for-profits make money; and/or bringing together diverse – and at times at odd – groups such as for-profits and environmental groups.  For some, these trends have paradigm-shifting implications. How do you make sure they are ready for and willing to engage in your success?

For more information, go to the SWEF site: http://www.socialenterpriseworldforum.org/

And for the top 5 reasons to attend – be persuaded here: http://www.jsdaw.com/5-reasons-why-sewf-2013-is-the-must-attend-conference/#more-2071

Educating young people is the responsibility of the entire community, not just schools. In order to realise this collective responsibility, there is an increasing focus on Australian schools developing partnerships with business and the broader community.

It is within this context that the Australian Government established the School Business Community Partnership Brokers (Partnership Brokers) program to build partnerships that support young people to reach their full educational and social potential. The program commenced in 2010 and is delivered by a national network of Partnership Broker organisations operating in 107 regions across Australia.

Partnership Brokers are currently supporting over 2000 partnerships involving more than 5000 partner organisations. While these numbers indicate a growing culture of partnering between schools and their communities, the numbers alone don’t tell us much about the impact of the Partnership Brokers program and the benefits these partnerships are delivering.

Within this context, Social Ventures Australia was commissioned to undertake a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis of five Partnership Broker regions. SROI is a framework that provides an internationally recognised methodology to measure the social, economic and environmental impact of an organisation or program, such as the Partnership Brokers program. Attached is the summary report – an overview of the evaluation process and key findings.

To download further documents related to this evaluation (the approach, and regional outcomes) visit the Department of Education, Employment & Workplace Relations website

For more information about the Partnership Brokers program visit the Youth Attainment and Transitions website

The Australia Mekong NGO Engagement Platform: various positions in the Mekong currently open for expressions of interest to enhance partnerships. Click here for all the details: https://www.devex.com/en/jobs/multiple-positions-in-the-mekong-16884

The next issue of Betwixt & Between – the new online journal of partnership brokering – comes out in November, and we have opted for a theme of evaluation.

This is a topic that consistently generates interest and enquiry amongst practitioners, and is one that deserves greater discussion. We have broken the topic down into the following areas:

• The role of a partnership broker as a monitor in the evaluation of a partnership’s activities in monitoring/tracking activity, contributions & performance; and in estimating the impacts of activities.
• The role of a partnership broker as an advisor in the evaluation of a partnership, helping partners assess: the efficiency & effectiveness of the partnership’s management /decision-making processes; the impact, outputs, outcomes of the partnership; the value of the partnerships’ activities to the partners.
• The partnership broker as a subject in the evaluation of the brokering approach, assessing how his/her performance, skills, competencies and attributes have contributed to the partnership’s effectiveness. Such evaluation also provides useful information of the outcomes of brokered and not-brokered partnerships.
• The role of a partnership broker as a change agent  in the evaluation of the partnership paradigm, assessing the impact of a broker on policy and systems; and comparing partnerships to other options for delivering development and sustainability challenges

Download the details here

We are looking for articles from practitioners in all these areas – be it frontline experience or conceptual frameworks.

If you are interested in contributing to the journal we invite your abstract by 1st August 2013. If you would like to contact the editor to discuss your piece, please email Herman (herman.brouwer@wur.nl) or Surinder (surinder@rippleseed.com)

If you would like to submit a paper on a different topic – Issue 3 is an open issue for any subject. Please contact us for abstract dates (info@partnershipbrokers.org).

in the Business Innovation Facility portfolio. Take a look at the blog by Tom Harrison and the new publication.

Thursday, March 21st from 12h00 to 13h00 EST (1hour)

Partnership Brokers Network Canada is pleased to announce that Tim Draimin of the Social Innovation Generation has agreed to lead a short discussion, followed by questions and comments. Tim will explain how he sees the broader brokering landscape from a social innovation perspective. Where do innovation and brokering processes intersect, support each other, and provide catalyzing potential? What are linkages to the role of the partnership broker? What are some Canadian examples of this intersection?

Due to the special nature of this webinar, we have decided to invite both PBN members and non-members who are interested in partnership brokering or actively engaged in the development of collaborations and/or partnerships. We encourage everyone to distribute this message to friends and colleagues who may wish to join us.

Tim is the Executive Director of the Social Innovation Generation (SiG). He supports SiG’s growing network of academics, practitioners, social entrepreneurs, allied institutions and partnerships in expanding Canada’s Social Innovation ecosystem. Tim is also the author of Canada’s first national study of social entrepreneurship and a frequent advisor to government, non-profit associations and business. For more information on Tim or his thoughts on social innovation, please visit the SiG site.

A brief introduction will raise key issues and pose some challenging questions – we welcome an active discussion and the opportunity to share a variety of perspectives on this topic. The instructions for connecting on the day of the webinar can be found at the end of this message. You can either log-in via the website for dial-in by phone using WEBEX.

About PBN Canada:

For those new to us, the Partnership Brokers Network (PBN) – Canada provides a forum where we can actively engage in discussions involving the brokering and support of multi-sector collaborations and partnerships. There are more than 60 Canadians who have completed various levels of Partnership Brokers Association (PBA) training and we believe there is significant value in us sharing our respective insights and experience. PBN-Canada provides opportunities for us to connect, in the form of email/LinkedIn updates, webinars and in-person events. The network is 100% driven by its members, and there is no charge to join our conversation.

Meeting Number: 825 222 876

Meeting Password: partnership

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To start this meeting via your computer

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1. Go to https://wvi.webex.com/wvi/j.php?J=825222876&PW=NMmJjYzY4Yjhi

2. Log in to your account.

3. Click “Start Now”.

4. Follow the instructions that appear on your screen to join the teleconference.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This WebEx service includes a feature that allows audio and any documents and other materials exchanged or viewed during the session to be recorded. By joining this session, you automatically consent to such recordings. If you do not consent to the recording, discuss your concerns with the meeting host prior to the start of the recording or do not join the session. Please note that any such recordings may be subject to discovery in the event of litigation.

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To join the conference by telephone

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Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 1-877-668-4493

Call-in toll number (US/Canada): 1-650-479-3208

Global call-in numbers: https://wvi.webex.com/wvi/globalcallin.php?serviceType=MC&ED=180292172&tollFree=1

Toll-free dialing restrictions:http://www.webex.com/pdf/tollfree_restrictions.pdf

Access code:825 222 876

http://www.webex.com

Many of us are unsure of how Social Innovation happens or why we need it. Here’s a quick overview of social innovation, as developed by Social Innovation Generation. For years SiG has been exploring the various qualities and elements that support successful social innovation – including partnership.

PBA has just completed its first year as an independent organisation.

A significant milestone and now time to focus on growth and impact. Our newly established Communities of Practice (carrying responsibility for our Learning, Training & Transforming agendas) are becoming established and we expect to build our research and advocacy activities to match the success of our training programme. Watch this space!

November saw the completion of a Level 1 training in Toronto – our first in the city, and our first time working with the Social Innovation Generation. 24 participants, from a diverse array of brokering contexts, proved that partnership brokering in Canada is thriving, and that many individuals in many different types of organisation are working hard to meet the needs of complex partnerships at home and abroad.

Organisations represented included: Canadian Co-operative Association, Cuso International, Environment Canada, MaRS, Natural Step, Plan International Canada, Public Safety Canada, Rural Secretariat of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, University of Waterloo, World Vision International.

In their feedback, participants confirmed that the training had helped them significantly to understand the partnering needs of their organisations and partnerships and how their improved brokering skills could make a significant difference to their partnerships’ efficiency, effectiveness and impact.

We would like to thank Social Innovation Generation for their work in building awareness of the importance of partnership brokering for effective collaboration, and their support in helping us provide this training. We would also like to warmly thank the Rural Secretariat of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for their support by ‘lending’ us one of their planning team (a graduate of the programme) to take on the role of co-trainer alongside Ros Tennyson, the Association’s Development Director. Thanks too to Nick Luff – another graduate – who joined the team for a day as a third co-trainer.

This training in partnership brokering will be returning to Canada in 2013 – we are currently looking at opportunities in Toronto (mid-April), Calgary (late-Sep) and Vancouver. If you would like to register your interest please email us.

The September / October edition of EG Magazine – published by the Global to Local Foundation is now available online. This edition is focussed on Partnering Effectively, Education for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Procurement.

For more information on the magazine, and to download the latest issue click here

Global to Local Foundation is committed to:

• Educating individuals and organisations in the principles and application of sustainable development.
• Assisting local, national and international authorities, industries, companies, communities, groups and individuals to deliver locally appropriate sustainable policies and solutions.

For more information on the foundation click here