Partnering with the Private Sector - Navigator

Partnerships with the private sector have become a key aspect of Dutch development cooperation in the past 10 years. Since 2002 the Directorate-General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken part in 130 partnerships in many different forms, including about 75 Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). The latter address different topics, include a variety of financial and non-financial commitments and at least involve (Dutch) businesses or business associations but often also involve civil society bodies, governments, international organizations and knowledge bodies.With partnerships as a key method for development cooperation, many questions related to management, facilitation and skills arise for staff at Dutch missions, Ministry departments and the NL Agency.Questions can be clustered in three essential building blocks for effectively dealing with partnerships: the partnering rationale, the process of facilitating a partnership, and portfolio management of partnerships.To promote wider knowledge of partnerships, the Centre of Expertise on PPPs and Private Sector (DDE) asked the Partnerships Resource Centre (PrC) and The Partnering Initiative (TPI) to develop a Navigator. This Navigator focuses on these three key areas and their associated questions. Its objective is to guide the reader through the journey of partnering by providing background information, using case studies, describing skills and tools and giving recommendations for further reading.