In each best practice, there is always a partnership involved. Put another way, in very few instances does or should an NGO act alone. Rather, the success of most programs depends ultimately, on a strategic partnership with government, indigenous NGOs, and/or the private sector. One cannot engage in programs moving medical equipment or pharmaceuticals or information technology, without the direct involvement of and partnership with the private sector. Nor can one hope to respond effectively to a disaster or crisis, serve and protect refugee populations, strengthen a national health care system or deliver services effectively in education or environmental sustainability, without political will and involvement of government and civil indigenous society.
The important role of enlightened government and political will has long been recognized as an essential ingredient for sustainable development. More recently, however, has been more widespread understanding and acceptance of the important role played by the private sector in the development process.
By all accounts, private capital flows to developing countries―albeit a select few―exceed official U.S. bilateral development assistance five-fold. The President of the World Bank, Jim Wolfensohn as well as at the United Nations, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, are both catalyzing a sea change at their institutions. Their rhetoric is full of references to and recognition of public-private partnerships and the role of civil society in sustainable development. Although their program staff are having difficulty and are being criticized by NGOs for having such difficulty putting this rhetoric into practice, there does seem to be growing awareness and appreciation that in order for development projects to be effective and sustainable, there must be buy-in and support at the local level by local indigenous actors, and that implementation must be operationalized through partnerships between government, the private sector and civil society. In my humble opinion, this is a good thing in the long run for NGOs and for sustainable development.
However, in order for these cross-sectoral relationships to work, the nature of partnerships needs to be better understood. Partnerships need to be strategic, where the relationship―either perceived or real-is win-win, based on mutual gain to the partners in areas of their strategic interests (Waddell, 1999). Further, decision-making about the direction and management of joint activities must be shared (Saxton 1997).
These are two basic premises that are the keystone of any viable working partnership. And, although they seem rather logical, they are too often not in place or apparent in many collaborative operations between the private sector and NGOs. NGOs too often believe they alone control the moral high ground and corporations too often try to control the directions and terms of their partnerships with NGOs simply because they have put more money on the table.
All too often, there is a missing third ingredient to successful public private partnerships, that is repeatedly missing from the dialogue, and that is the role of the public sector [national, state, local and multilateral].
It seems that, once again; the rhetoric has fallen into the "zero-sum-game" trap, of either public or private.
