These organizations have had good intentions for years, but they had different metrics and funding streams which made it hard for the county- which was the key payor—to really know if people were moving out of poverty.   A key challenge was common metrics across programs and organization.  Since last year’s conference, the group has agreed to track progress on key areas including –employment,  housing, food and education–all using the same core metrics.  This agreement in itself is a major step forward to better understanding what works to address poverty and how progress can be quantified and replicated.  I am sure that there will be a lot to learn from this ground-breaking initiative.

Despite the blizzard in Boston last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the Harvard Social Enterprise conference. Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund was the keynote.  While I have heard Jacqueline speak before, I was struck by her clarity on the need to match the stage of development, particularly in the process of creating markets and businesses, with the appropriate type of funding.

Jacqueline shared the example of Water Health International that wanted to develop a market approach to provide water in rural areas of Ghana.  Upon reflection, they learned that they were not just creating a business but they had to create an entire market to be able to provide these services to rural areas.  So the initial estimates about how long it would take to see a return were much longer. She indicated that in these situations it might be more beneficial to use more grants to test the models and/or to have patient capitol that might have a longer time frame that would facilitate success.  In my discussions with business there is growing interest in thinking about ways to use philanthropic dollars to underwrite initial business risk to develop new business models that provide triple bottom line results.

Highlights

• Partnerships are often more challenging than they seem. Speakers used the analogy of a marriage to described the typical ups and downs of the private-public relationship. High ‘divorce’ rates between these partnerships can be attributed to disconnect between each partner’s understandings of the end goal.
• USAID has projects for five key reasons: to increase scale, increase sustainability, improve efficiency, increase effectiveness, and for game change.
• ExxonMobil summarized the four key elements for successful partnerships: clear goals and objectives; individual objectives and joint objectives for targeted community; common timeline and deliverables; and an understanding of what should be done based on competencies and contributions.

Read more at http://www.sidw.org/assets/expanding%20the%20pie%20event%20summary.pdf

U.K . Corporate Views:

U.K. NGO Views: The main (96%) reason that NGOs partner with corporations is to access and generate resources.  However, there was a 15% from 2011 in NGOs partnering with corporations to access people, networks and innovation.

Meeting Objectives: Most businesses and NGOs (90%) reported that strategic partnerships were meeting their objectives and delivering value, although there is still a difference of opinion concerning non-cash efforts.  Businesses (68%) reported that harnessing core competences and non-cash resources make a greater impact than just cash-based relationships. Only 20% of NGOs agreed with this concept.

NGOs Underestimate their Value: Only 78% of NGOs ( compared to 91% of businesses) thought their  partnerships helped businesses understand social and environmental issues and 50% of NGOs reported these partnerships improve business practices.  The largest difference between NGOs and business was on NGOs effectiveness.  The majority of businesses (74%) through NGOs are effective, professional entities while only 42% of NGO respondents thought that business viewed NGOs as being effective.

Growing Importance: Both businesses (82%) and NGOs (85%) expect cross-sector partnerships to become more important in the next three years.

I have spent the last two weeks traveling in the north and east of Sri Lanka.  While the tea estates have a long history of poor labor practices, there have been great improvements in the working and living conditions for the workers through joints efforts of the estates management, trade unions, NGOs and the government.  Efforts have largely focused on improving dialogue among these parties to discuss key issues such as improving worker safety has been improved, better housing and educational opportunities including other employment opportunities for the youth of these families.   Consumer’s desire for tea that is grown through ethical practices (e.g. Ethical Tea Initiative) have helped stimulate this progress. While challenges still persist, it is clear that the achievements gained would not have been possible without collective engagement of all these groups.

The organizers dedicated a moment of silence  to the workers– but all of us knew that this was inadequate. Last year’s conference focused on worker safety and the Nike representative stated that the this was an issue that all the MNCs took seriously and so should the supplier companies. While it is disappointing that in 2012 workers, who are mostly women, have to work in poor conditions to provide for their families. it was inspiring to meet with people who are working in the trenches to improve working and environmental practices in the  factories that produce products that most of us consume.

Public bodies in the UK have been resistant to cross-sector working. Each sees their issues as unique and has difficulty accepting that lessons can be learnt from organizations at the other end of sector.

What would happen if fire services began sharing their purchasing tips with schools? What could the police learn from the hospitals around efficiency? How about councils combining demand with universities?.

Mr. Haskin’s advice is to widen your search for efficiency ideas and you’ll find that many different parts of the public sector will offer fresh answers. It’s often those organisations far outside your existing networks that can provide the most innovative solutions.

http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=20640

It is clear that companies have significantly evolved from the mid 1990s when the first reports about products being made sweatshops surfaced.  The fact that they invited me to speak about collaboration among companies as well as with nonprofits and government demonstrates that there is a growing willingness of companies and brands to address these issues.

Oxfam and Unilever have been working together since 2010 to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, setting up pilot projects in Tanzania and Azerbaijan to source dehydrated vegetables.

A Unilever spokesperson  commented  “We can only achieve a sustainable and equitable economy if business, government and civil society work together. For business this includes core business activity, helping address the wider impacts of business and philanthropic activity.” Such projects are not purely altruistic. Unilever’s spokesperson adds that, “Sustainable sourcing and improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers must be part of any long-term business strategy. Putting sustainability at the core of our sourcing will ensure that we manage our business growth.