Creating space for innovation : understanding enablers for multi-sector partnerships in the water and sanitation sector

A 2002 BPDWS study suggests that multi-sector partnerships (MSPs) are often uninformed about and unprepared for wider contextual factors that could obstruct their progress. In order to avoid stumbling blocks that MSPs may encounter and to prompt partnership practitioners into discussion BPDWS  has designed a discussion tool, in order to assist partners’ preliminary analysis of the context in which they work. The original remit of the project was to determine the macro processes and phenomena  enabling or disabling multi-sector partnerships in the water and sanitation sector, in particular for MSPs designed to improve service delivery to poor households. It appeared, though, that the consulted practitioners encountered many real and potential blockages to MSP progress operating within the institutions and organisations they were representing. A framework of analysis describes the internal and external obstructions.

The discussion tool assists partners’ preliminary analysis of the context in which they work, as well as the aspects of that context that they are seeking to address. Although overlapping, the research team broke these factors in three themes : 1) ensuring organisational cohesion and backing without which an individual partner’s participation is likely to falter, 2) forging solid relationships between partners, and 3) ensuring that the scope of the partnership is appropriate for the context and the resources available.