Aid Modalities Guideline
Section C | Partnership Frameworks
Achieving effective partnerships, based on trust, openness, respect, and mutual accountability is one of the Operating Principles of NZAID’s core policy statement. Such partnership implies a way of engaging that goes beyond individual development activities or the details of particular grant arrangements or contracts.
NZAID may have a longstanding partnership with the agency concerned with associated expectations and ways of working, such as often exist with partner governments or New Zealand Strategic Partner NGOs. New Zealand may be a formal member of the partner agency with obligations and a policy role, such as occurs with multilateral or regional agencies. There may be a high degree of past institutionalisation and stakeholder ownership of the activity such as is the case for contestable modalities such as the Koha PICD, or Scholarships Programme. In such cases, the partnership should be documented to provide clarity and transparency to those elements of the partnership.
A partnership framework is: A document or set of documents formally agreed between partners which generally include the following:
- the nature and intent of the partnership
- key partnership principles
- expectations and obligations of each partner
- governance and management of the partnership (as opposed to any specific activity)
- processes for review or change in the partnership
Partnership frameworks provide a key means to promote strong development relationships and to strengthen mutual accountability alongside other Aid Effectiveness Principles.
There are many different forms of partnership frameworks. Often these are already in place although in some areas they have not been formalised. In some cases, NZAID has negotiated ODA Partnership Arrangements with bilateral partner countries which provide a framework for the whole ODA relationship, though more specific frameworks for particular activities are also common. Increasingly, such frameworks will be multi-donor reflecting moves to harmonised programmes and high order modalities.
The detailed modality tables in Annex I include consideration of appropriate partnership and governance frameworks for each aid modality, where specific arrangements may be required, and how they are or should be formalised. These are also summarised in Annex 2.