Partnership in Development

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Partnership in Development

Creating partnerships and seeking joint development efforts with many partners is an essential part of making changes for the better.
There is a great need and demand for joint efforts in the field of development in the world of today. Many partners around the world have the same aspirations as HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE has of securing a good education for all, of improving the lot of the children while growing up, of combating HIV/AIDS, of starting small businesses to help people earn a livelihood, of generally making the world a better place for all people, free from poverty, disease and need.

By joining forces and creating partnerships, goals can be achieved which may not have been reached otherwise. HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE seeks partnerships with large international foundations and organisations, with governments and with oil companies, but certainly also with the local businessman, the community based organisation, the parents’ organisation, the local church, and the neighbour next door.

Partnership in Development is something which can be perceived as essentially human - as it builds on the co-operation of people who come from several angles into a matter, who pool their resources to improve the situation, and who work in togetherness to create better conditions for people in need.

Development, the main trade of HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE, as well as of many other organ-isations and entities, is always a complex and at times a multi-pronged affair and it is never easy. It is most often a huge task that entails lots of energy, resources - money, materials, efforts - and extensive human contributions and investments in the forms of creative leadership, care in taking informed and correct decisions on which roads to choose, the capacity to put up a multitude of questions, and to subsequently also seek and find the answers and solutions to these questions.

In this endeavour, as in all other human endeavours, it is a great advantage not to be alone, but to reach out for the human forces nearby and further afield, and to create successful co-operations out of the meetings with people, organisations, authorities and other potential Partners in Development. Our Partners are our companions. Together we celebrate the results of our work. When the children in the school for the first time perform for a larger audience. When the students at the vocational school have passed their first practical test. When the students at The Teacher Training College have established their first evening course for the surrounding community. The achievements are the results of our common efforts. We build up a closer relationship and thereby strengthen and develop our common actions to reach our goals. Establishing and building Partnership in Development is a permanent and ongoing part of the development work.

It is a form of art to create Partnership in Development.
Here is an extract from guidelines in the work of Partnership in Development for the HUMANA PEOPLE TO PEOPLE Project Leaders. “Part of the art is to know your own strengths and weaknesses as a partner in development, and to arrange the whole development venture so that all partners get the most out of the cooperation by filling in each others’ voids, and take constructive advantage of the extra accumulated force which emerges from a good partnership.

Another part of the art is to be professional in seeking partnerships: knowing what to base the partnership on, identifying and meeting the people who are willing and able to build partnerships, knowing what to ask for and expect, finding the ways to meet the demands of the partner, researching new paths and ventures with the partner, and finding out to make a partnership last and transcend itself into new phases.

Then a third part of the art is to actually understand the fundamental idea, or essence, of partnership. Here it is crucial to pinpoint what comes out of the partnership for both parties, and to appreciate these results in common.

A fourth part of the art of creating partnerships is to involve as many people as possible. Development work is a shared responsibility of all. When reaching out and inviting all the people at the project to take an active part in the partnership work, new strengths, skills, ideas and visions are created.

A fifth part of the art of creating partnership in development is the production and permanent availability of very good material describing the project. This also entails an adamant information policy.

A sixth part of the trade of creating partnership in development is to present the people and the work of the project in such a way as to make a lasting impression on the partner. Partnerships are made from people to people, and personal relationships of sense and perspective often grow out of the joint efforts for a shared cause.

A seventh part of creating partnership in development is to listen and really hear what the partner has to say - as well as tell, and really explain, in return. This is the art of sharing the realities of today, the visions for the future, and creating the roads on which to travel.

An eighth part of the art form of partnership in development is to focus on the actual results of the common venture, to follow them closely and to document what comes out of the shared efforts - in an innovative and extensive way - looking also at the difficulties encountered and even the problems not overcome.”

We see partnership in development as the road ahead, as the means of finding the solutions and raising the resources necessary to tackle the tasks and create further development together.

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