There is growing political support and momentum towards the use of partnerships in sustainable development, and the number of partnerships is increasing rapidly.

However, partnerships are not a panacea. They are not always the right solution and if inappropriately chosen as a mechanism or if not done well, they will fail. And if too many partnerships fail, without it being clear why they have failed, the use of partnerships as a whole will be damaged.

Certainly, if partnerships are to continue to carry support, it is essential that they be properly monitored and evaluated to determine how effectively they are delivering on their objectives. Only with more concrete evidence can partnerships be shown to be an efficient mechanism for sustainable development.

Of course, it is also essential to monitor partnerships in order to identify problems and issues as you go along in order to make changes and achieve maximum efficiency. And whether a partnership is a 'success' or a 'failure', it is vital to know why so that lessons can be learned by future partnerships.

Despite this, most work on the evaluation of partnerships has concentrated on just one aspect: the partnering relationship and dynamics. Relatively little has been done on assessing the other aspects: all outcomes/impact (not just those related to the partnership objectives), the real cost of partnering (and hence the ability to do an economic efficiency appraisal) and the value-add of the partnership approach (in comparison with non-partnering alternatives).

CASDP is currently working in partnership with the Partnering Initiative on an OECD project researching evaluation of environmental partnerships. It is looking at methodologies to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the partnership in achieving its objectives, but also to evaluate the ancillary partnership benefits (capacity development within partner organisations, resource mobilization, technology transfer etc.). If you would like to assist with the research, please click here.

CASDP offers consulting services using the 'POCA' approach (Partnership, Outcomes, Costs, Added-value) to assist partnerships with their evaluation.