Monday 3rd June to Friday 7th June

1.00 to 3.30pm UK

Registration is now open for practitioners from all sectors to build their knowledge, understanding and skills of how to work effectively in partnership. The Effective Partnering course is suited both to new partnership practitioners and those with some partnering experience who wish to complement and formalise their learning with frameworks, practical tools and experiential learning. The course balances core knowledge with interactive, experiential learning through ‘serious games’, peer-to-peer exchange and case clinics.

Overview

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and many of today’s societal, environmental, business and humanitarian challenges are so complex and interconnected that they can only be tackled by different sectors working together. From local NGO-business collaborations to global alliances: governments, business, civil society, and development agencies are joining their resources and competencies to stimulate innovation, ensure sustainability and create maximum value for all.

However, effective collaboration between stakeholders with different missions, interests, cultures and even vocabularies is difficult to achieve. It requires common understanding across partners; collective leadership; a collaborative mindset and a key partnering skill set; and both strong relationship management and output- focussed project management. With these critical elements in place, partnerships can achieve real impact. Without them, partnerships are likely to under-perform or fail altogether.

The course is based on TPI’s flagship publication developed with the UN, the SDG Partnership Guidebook and other TPI resources. It is structured around five virtual seminars, with assigned reading and tasks for participants to contextualise the learning to their own situation in between the seminars.

Indicative Course Outline

Five virtual seminars (each lasting 2.5 hours) via Zoom with virtual interactive tools. These will take place Monday to Friday, 1.00pm to 3.30pm UK.

1. Understanding the rich tapestry of partnerships and how they create strategic value
2. Good practice partnering process and the building blocks of effective collaboration;
3. Partnership negotiation: maximising value and deepening the collaborative relationship;
4. Keeping partnerships healthy and effective;
5. Partnering in practice: personal action plans and embedding into your organisation.

Each seminar is complemented by assignments for participants in their own time (1 to 2 hours between each seminar). They consist of a combination of background reading and application of knowledge to their own work to draw out learning and deeper reflection.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will –

1. Have exchanged experiences and learned from a diverse set of peer participants;
2. Have a shared language and full strategic understanding of multi-stakeholder partnership approaches to deliver sustainable development;
3. Have developed knowledge of the building blocks for effective partnerships, a range of competencies and skills, and a complete set of tools to build and support collaboration;
4. Have been able to apply learning and tools to their own situation and develop individual partnering action plans;
5. Have access to a range of materials to be able to pass their increased knowledge onto colleagues within their organisation.