IBLF - Institutional Work

INSTITUTIONAL WORK

We actively seek to influence institutional behaviour and to strengthen institutions to make their contribution to sustainable development more effectively.

As a matter of principle, we always strive to work collaboratively – as partners – ourselves in developing a wide range of creative connections with organisations where there is potential for mutual benefit, innovation, learning and impact – often exploring uncharted territory.

Current examples include:

Building government capacity to partner
Anew programme to explore the challenges and opportunities of partnering with governments and to build the capacity of governments to partner more effectively with business and civil society through awareness-raising and partnership skills training. The initial focus is Africa, concentrating on five countries - South Africa, Madagascar, Zambia, Guinea and Gabon. The tools, case studies and other materials produced will be adaptable for use globally. This project is a partnership between the IBLF, GTZ and a number of major businesses: Microsoft, Rio Tinto, SAP and Shell.

Business support for civil society
We are working with the Aga Khan Development Network in 8 countries in the FSU, South Asia and Africa to raise awareness of the critical role that business can play in building civil society. The aim is to encourage business to engage in practical action to strengthen civil society in countries where it may be weak or at risk.

Promoting system change
We are working with Accenture Development Partnerships (the non-profit organisation attached to Accenture) and World Vision International to build a systematic approach to World Vision International’s corporate engagement in many of the 130+ countries in which it operates.

Building ‘moving on’ strategies
We are working with the Vodafone UK Foundation to undertake a series of analytical case studies of their partnerships and track how the partners’ exit and moving on strategies can be planned and implemented without compromising the sustainable outcomes of their work.

Evaluating impact and effectiveness
We are working with the University of Cambridge Programme for Industry and the US-based NGO, Synergos, to build an 18 month programme of evaluating partnership approaches to assess whether (or not) they are more effective than non-partnering approaches and how far (or not) they influence and impact institutional behaviour.

The Partnership Declaration

At an event organised by The Partnering Initiative in the UK in September 2006, 130 partnership practitioners launched The Partnership Declaration - a statement urging for stronger systems and frameworks in which partnerships can achieve sustainable development goals.

The declaration was sent to key policy makers in governments and international agencies, as well as leaders in business and public sector organisations and is beginning to have some impact in countries as diverse as The Philippines and Hungary.

For the full text of the declaration, visit http://www.thepartnershipdeclaration.org