Our Approach

Our approach on PLP is largely based on finding ways to consciously and thoughtfully share some of the power that AusAID has as a large bilateral donor. We are very careful to acknowledge that we can never have a level playing field, and that the money will always create a power imbalance. But we believe that there are many processes which can be put in place around a partnership which will go a long way towards creating better relationships – and better development outcomes.

PLP’s Partnership Approach

Many (but not all) of PLP’s funding relationships are characterised as partnerships, and are guided by a Partnership Agreement. This model was developed in recognition of the fact that leadership work is inherently cultural, and sensitive. We needed to find a way to move away from a simple technical approach to developing leadership, to more effectively engaging with people on what motivates them. The partnership model allows us to enter into relationships with people and organisations to discover what they need to do, learn, or develop, to enable them to be leaders.

What PLP Looks for in a Partner

We look to partner with an organisation that:

• Is in a leadership role in society, or which has members in leadership roles;

• Has the potential to contribute to discussion and debate on appropriate forms of leadership in the Pacific;

• Is credible and recognised within the region or nation;

• Is representative of some kind of constituency, and is willing to share their influence with that constituency with the PLP;

• Has strong accountability processes or willingness to work with PLP to build and implement accountability and M&E processes; and

• Has a commitment to Pacific wide sharing of knowledge and lessons.

How does PLP Establish Partnerships?

We only work with organisations which have clearly expressed a desire to do some form of leadership development, somewhere in their work plan or general ambitions, so that we don’t have organisations growing towards our funding and away from their own mandates. We go through a structured process of discussions and workshops to build a relationship between our organisations and identify why we want to get in to a partnership. After some challenging experiences, we now prefer to do this with strong Board and staff representation, as well as management. Then we establish a Partnership Agreement.

• The establishment of the partnerships involves going through a number of different tools and exercises together. These processes are all designed to get to know each other more deeply than standard contract negotiations allow, to encourage transparency about why each party is at the table, to acknowledge and reinforce the strengths the other party brings, and the weaknesses AusAID has. We constantly reinforce all the reasons why we need the other party, and all the strengths they have that we lack. We look at mutual and exclusive benefits and risks, strengths and weaknesses, and shared outcomes which we can structure our work around. We talk about previous relationships which different organisations have been involved in, how those relationships have worked, and how this relationship might be better. For the Pacific people we work with, the focus on relationships and understanding each other’s values, principles and motivations works well.
   

• Once we have been through this process, we write a Partnership Agreement together, from a blank page. We have some proposed headings, and examples of other agreements, and we are aware of the AusAID parameters we have to work within, but essentially we draft the document together from scratch. This is a difficult process, but is a great measure for building equity. The Partnership Agreement only describes the relationship between the two, or at times three, parties. It does not look at work plans or budgets. These come later, in separate documents, which hang from the Partnership Agreement.
   

• We make it clear that we want to support our partners’ own agendas (we have already identified that at least some part of their agenda meshes with our objectives) and that we will support them through failure (as long as it is not catastrophic) as well as success. The only failure we cannot work through is financial mismanagement, and we identify right from the outset measures to help partners strengthen their financial management systems.
   

• We separate the money and the work. We have a finance specialist who works closely with our partners on their financial processes, develops a good relationship with their financial managers, and looks after all the acquittals. This leaves the Program team free to talk with our partners about the work (without the money getting in the way!), and to learn from each other.
   

• We establish mutual accountability measures. Each partner establishes criteria on which to assess the other as a partner, again this has nothing to do with the work program, acquittals or milestones, but purely the function of the partnership. We set up regular formal monitoring processes, generally every three or four months, to check each other against these criteria.
   

• We establish how the relationship management is going to work, and we write this down. This usually means regular informal contact, sharing networks, attending each other’s events, promoting each other, responding flexibly and quickly to changing circumstances, and regular formal monitoring of the relationship.