The Key Elements of Effective International Cooperation and Local Partnerships – Evolving Practices in International Cooperation

The two-year peer learning journey, “Evolving Practices in International Cooperation,” is designed for the Funders International Network for Development (FIND), a unique, EU-based funders’ collaborative focusing on new trends and challenges in the field of international cooperation, hosted by Philea. 

The first session investigated “The Key Elements of Effective International Cooperation and Local Partnerships” with CivSource Africa.

Aims and content

This session explored the key elements of effective international cooperation and local partnerships, particularly starting points for engaging in more horizontal, transformative and human-centred international collaborations. This session was the first of seven peer-learning webinars, each of which centres a specific peer learning question and invites participants to engage in forward-thinking discussions around contemporary international partnerships suited to current global challenges. 

Learning topics covered

Amidst growing recognition that successful international development is rooted in local organisations and rights holders taking ownership at every stage and level of the process, this session was a first introduction for the participants to get to know one another and exchange experiences. To do so, participants discussed how to address the ongoing power imbalance between funders and Global Majority civil society organisations, with a particular focus on localisation.  

Recommendations

The speaker shared insights from her extensive experience in fostering partnerships in philanthropy and development work, including: 

• The importance of acknowledging power dynamics and political will, urging participants to embrace the elephants in the room in order to build effective partnerships. 
• Effective partnerships invite a continuous cycle of learning, relearning, and unlearning, especially within the nexus of grantmakers and grant seekers. 
• For funding organisations to develop effective partnerships, reflect on three essential questions: how we interpret our words through our actions, what is our “why” behind support power shifting and localisation within collaborations, and how deep do we recentre this commitment to our work? 

Speaker

Jacqueline Asiimwe is a Ugandan human rights lawyer and philanthropy advisor. She is the founder and CEO of CivSource Africa, a philanthropy advisory firm focused on grassroots, community-driven grant-making.

Jacqueline also serves on the Steering Committee for Women in African Philanthropy at CAPSI and the Peer-to-Peer Selection Committee of the Lift Up Philanthropy Fund. 

Resources