How Partnerships Work

  • Inclusive and Participatory: Enabling actors from government, business, civil society and communities to engage in dialogue and to work together; giving voice to stakeholders who are usually voiceless in determining systemic outcomes
  • Systemic: Dealing with complexity, shifting systems, addressing interdependencies and root causes
  • Open-Hearted: Working with empathy & understanding; drawing on intellectual, emotional, spiritual and relational intelligence
  • Emergent: Creating conditions for learning and wisdom to emerge, being open to possibilities, inviting creativity, trial and error, and innovation
  • Capabilities-Focused: Building on and leveraging assets; scaling what works, and stimulating new thinking

Inclusive Partnerships

Inclusive Partnerships bring together all sectors to engage in collective problem-solving: government, business, civil society organizations and communities. Those directly and adversely affected by the issue participate in the process and decision-making, and are not prescribed solutions by "experts."

Inclusive partnerships address critical development challenges where technical or narrow solutions have not worked or are not working at scale.

Inclusive Partnerships Lifecycle: Invitation > Assembly > Dialogue & Action > Sustainability

Innovative Process

The lifecycle of Synergos Inclusive Partnerships are composed of the following phases:

  • Invitation
    Idea Generation & Feasibility Assessment
  • Assembly
    Initiating Partners Convening & Situation Research
    Systems Analysis & Stakeholder Mapping
    Stakeholder Mobilization & Launch Preparation
  • Dialogue & Action
    Stakeholder Dialogue & Action Planning
    Systems Change Initiatives & Movement Building
  • Sustainability
    Scaling & Sustaining
    Leveraging & Exiting

Program Support Resources

Partnership projects are supported and enhanced by Synergos' complementary work in the following areas:

  • Partnership Brokering and Services: Enabling prospective partners to connect and form partnerships; offering a range of consulting service to support partnerships.
  • Networks and Convening: Fostering a community of organizations and individuals active in inclusive partnerships by providing opportunities, including peer learning, guided personal reflection and other methods.
  • Capacity Building: Enabling and supporting local leaders and institutions to advance their skills in designing, convening, leading, facilitating and managing inclusive partnerships.
  • Knowledge Creation and Sharing: Developing and making available practical knowledge resources on inclusive partnerships tools, guidebooks, case studies, methodologies, etc.
  • Evaluation and Assessment: Continuously examining the efficacy of partnership approaches to ensure applications are appropriate and of highest value; distilling lessons learned within initiatives and across the program.