Every year, Save the Children Philippines measures its commitment in terms of Partnership Management using the global essential standards and country-specific quality benchmarks for partnership. The essential standards provide country offices a checklist to ensure consistency of quality, and is checked annually. The Partnership essential standards focus on 4 main areas:

1) Partnership development adheres to the Partnership principles and includes an assessment, selection and proper documentation,

2) Partners are visited at least once a year and properly documented,

3) Partner activity and spend are monitored and verified, and

4) SCI and partner meet at least once a year to conduct mutual review and feedback.

In addition to the global standards for operations quality, the Program Development and Quality (PDQ) Unit of the country office has developed a set of quality benchmarks for thematic and cross-thematic areas. In Partnership, there is another set of 4 benchmarks being monitored annually:

If you would like to read up on your Essential Standards and Quality Benchmarks, click here.

The Partnership team would like to share a quick round-up of the results of the standards review with the different program offices in 2017. Did your region hit the mark? Read on to find out.

They have also identified key lessons gathered in 2017, the first of which is the need to improve coordination between LPO and NO and clarify the roles of partner managers and finance staff in terms of partnership. The two offices should also strengthen their complementation in approaching and working with national government agencies such as DILG and DEPED. LPO will be prioritizing their partnership strategy in preparation for SCP’s Country Strategic Planning which starts this year.

HIGHS

ü  One Visayas achieved generally high marks in achieving the essential standards on partnership. They rated themselves high on Essential Standards 1-3, and moderately high on standard 4.

ü  They want to set for themselves the goal that One Visayas will conduct partnership-wide reviews so as to maximize the consultative and participatory process.

ü  The program office scored as Moderate when it comes to the .quality benchmarks.Their score is based on their admittance that most of the efforts on capacity building of partners is dependent on the project’s budget allocation for such activities.

LOWS

Ø  Although they conduct yearly reviews with partners, this is done on a per project basis.

Ø  It would be good if the capacity building component can be made a cross-cutting requirement for all their projects/programs. They are also still in the process of updating their database.

The Visayas Field Offices are often referred to as One Visayas, and is composed of the Eastern Visayas Program Office which manages SCPoperations in Tacloban City and Ormoc, and the Western Visayas Program Office which manages programs being implemented in the municipalities within Panay Island.

The teams also shared their key learnings in 2017, most of which deal with areas they believe need strengthening amongst their partners. One Visayas partners currently lack a Comments Response Mechanism (CRM) system, which could strengthen their data gathering and analysis. Partner organizations also need support in identifying second-line leaders and a competency-based hiring system for their structure. One Visayas is also aware that there is a scarcity of donors when it comes to organizational strengthening, and they are finding it hard to address these gaps due to limited resources. For 2018, SCP is looking to provide the appropriate technical assistance needed for the partners in the region.

HIGHS

ü  The Mindanao field offices have also rated high in terms of achieving the essential standards

ü  In 2018, the group will be working on their Partnership engagement plan as it connects to the CSP and their regional strategic plans.

ü  They also aim to make capacity building plans per partner a minimum standard across all their programs.

LOWS

Ø  One Mindanao needs to step up to achieve the quality benchmarks.