Partnership - An Instrument for Capacity Building ?

Partnership is one of those concepts that have gained popular currency in international cooperation over the last decade. Underlying the concept is a significant desire to re-balance power relationships between developing countries and external funding agencies, and to progressively transfer responsibility and ownership to the former. Terminology such as donor and recipient has accordingly been replaced by terms like development partners, suggesting a more equitable relationship based on a shared agenda for change. As tends to be the case, such concepts are over-used and applied uncritically, and critics wonder if, under the veneer of the new jargon, anything has really changed-the "old wine in new bottles" syndrome. Even when it has been applied genuinely, it is debatable whether real partnership can be achieved in a context of inequality, and pervading self-interest. This issue throws some light on the concept and practice of partnership in a particular realm of development cooperation-twinning-institutional cooperation between Northern and Southern training, research, and public sector organisations. The focus is on how partnership is seen by the different partners, and especially how partnership is seen to support capacity mobilisation and capacity building. Merrick Jones bases his reflections on work carried out for SIDA to evaluate twinning programmes that aim to build sustainable organisational capacities in the South. Chris Nwamuo sets out some principles required if capacity building through North-South partnerships in the African university sector is to be effective. Johan Helland reports on the twinning experience of two management development institutes in Norway and Tanzania illustrating a strategy to grow cautiously through an iterative process of experimentation and innovation. Beyond these contributions, there is an ever-growing literature on the topic of partnership, two of which are annotated in this issue. The first reports on an electronic discussion forum on partnership for development organised by the World Bank and entitled: "Learning to Partner with Civil Society." The second reviews guidelines for Research in Partnership with Developing Countries prepared by the Swiss Commission for Research with Developing Countries. Issue 6 of Capacity.org provides a snapshot of a wider debate and ongoing processes of experimentation. We hope these will encourage readers to share their views as well as their own experiences. Contact: [email protected]