Last September 2016, Save the Children Philippines (SCP) through its Partnership Unit conducted its annual Partnership Survey. The objective is to provide feedback on the general perception of how partnerships are managed by the organization. Sixty seven percent (67%) or 16 out of our 24 funded partner organizations participated in the survey. 

Profile of Respondents

Most of the respondents come from the National Capitol Region (56.25%), followed by the Visayas (31.25%) and Mindanao (12.5%). The respondents are relatively new partners.  Forty-two percent (42%) have been engaged with Save the Children for the last one to three years and 18.75% have been in partnership with us for more than 7 years.

In terms of extent of work with children, the survey shows that only 19% of partners provide direct service delivery for children (classifying these as most to all of their work). Most of the partners would characterize their work with children in various ways: strengthening civil society in protecting children’s rights (75%), influencing governments and organizations to provide services for children (56.25%), promoting children’s participation (56.25%), and working on child rights monitoring (43.75%). Very few are engaged in humanitarian and emergencies work, with 43.3% saying they have no engagement at all and 37.5% saying it is just a small part of their work. This is not surprising given that funded partnerships (using sub-award grants) are mostly confined to development projects and not in the humanitarian context.

Our Best Practices

“SCP is very involved throughout the whole partnership process,” writes one of the respondents, referring to the organization’s belief in making the journey together to achieve the intended results. Regular activities such as partnership meetings were also cited as a good practice which encourages an open and transparent relationship.

Partners also appreciate how SCP as an organization now increasingly respects their processes and refrains from imposing complicated processes that are not within the context of their operations. “SCP listens and inspires partners to advance children’s rights, consults partners’ and respects their decision.” This prevailing culture of understanding and mutual benefit only reinforces the organization’s good practices and effective application of its partnership principles. Save the Children’s commitment to support capacity strengthening was also singled out as one of the most appreciated factors in its partnership principles. The opportunity to engage in a co-mentoring process and receive technical assistance on organizational development is perceived as an important and valuable aspect of the relationship. And since not all of SCP’s partners directly work on children’s issues, the interventions on child-rights based approaches to programming is considered as a plus.

Lastly, respondents cite that SCP staff are approachable, sensitive and responsive to their concerns, which go a long way in making the partners feel that the organization is authentically invested in the partnership.

Areas for Improvement

The partners took the opportunity to provide SCP constructive feedback on four (4) areas of the partnership:  1) Capacity Strengthening, 2) Financial Transactions, 3) Reports and Feedback, and (4) Partnership Principles.

In terms of the support we are able to provide the organizations, there is a suggestion to strengthen the follow-up-mechanism for organizational capacity development, and continue avoiding the imposition of top-to-bottom strategies which are irrelevant in the field. As much as SCP respects their autonomy, it should also explore ways to  appreciate and recognize the efforts and innovations of partners on the ground. Designated Partner Managers need to increase their field presence by communicating regularly with the partners and conducting periodic monitoring visits. The Partners’ Meeting can also be improved in terms of design, and defining the parameters for discussion.

With regards to Financial Transactions, SCP may want to consider releasing succeeding tranches after achieving 80% of the planned expenditure instead of 100%. Organizationally, there is a clamor to streamline reporting by simplifying certain sections of the report and reducing templates that need to be completed. There is also a request for staff to quickly revert back on the partners’ narrative and finance reports since a long turnaround time for feedback causes delays in project implementation.  Partners also expressed their desire to have more venues for joint collaboration, especially in the field of advocacy. They also look forward to more flexibility on programming based on the partners’ core thrusts.

These are just some of the useful information sourced from the Partnership Survey. Given the richness of the data, we now have the opportunity to reflect on our processes and integrate the suggestions for improvement. The Partnership Survey will be run annually, to continually encourage feedback from partners and strengthen partnership management.