Full Report PDF & Overview: Scale strategies with government partners
On your mark… Get set… Go!
Access the full PDF of Leveraging Government Partnerships for Scaled Impact here or the key takeaways checklist here.
We heard time and again that there are no easy answers, no cookie-cutter approaches, and very few shortcuts to establishing strong and productive partnerships with government.
But in conducting our research, we identified key strategies that successful enterprises took in setting their visions, preparing their organizations, and building partnerships with government. Our interviewees’ advice to other social enterprises was twofold:
- get on your mark (set a vision), get set (prepare), and go, and
- stay the course — acknowledge that it is a marathon, not a sprint, so don’t give up when the path inevitably takes a turn or when you struggle to get one foot in front of the other.
Governments are balancing multiple priorities and demands, with limited budgets. They want to invest in high impact changes, but they also want to be sure of the impact and the implications before they start changing their systems to incorporate a new approach. One of the things that we as social enterprises can do is to help to answer some of those questions for them, to minimize their risk in adopting the ultimate solution. We can show them the demand, what it takes to generate that demand, and the costs. — Emily Bancroft, President, VillageReach
ON YOUR MARK: Set a vision for government partnership
As a first step, social enterprises must set a vision for engaging with government. What role do you see government playing in the solution? What role can you play? Strategies include:
- Define goal(s) for government partnership. Common goals include the following: government clearing the path; government outsourcing to the enterprise; government adopting and implementing the solution; and government changing policy.
- Articulate social enterprise’s role(s) in achieving partnership goals. The most common roles social enterprises play cut across three broad categories: implementer, consultant/trainer, and systems advisor.
GET SET: Prepare for productive, long-term engagement
Partnering with government can be challenging and requires significant investment of time and resources. Therefore, it is important to prepare for the marathon before you take off. Strategies include:
- Take the time to understand the context and critical stakeholders. Successful enterprises understood how to align with existing government priorities, worked across multiple levels of government, and identified other influencers.
- Build your own capacity — talent, funding, and systems — for long-term engagement. Enterprises must be prepared for a different type of engagement, often meaning hiring local talent and staff with partnership skills, seeking funders comfortable with risk, and building internal management systems.
GO!: Take off, using techniques to build effective partnerships
While all enterprises we interviewed were adamant that there is no standard approach, they did share a number of common strategies. These strategies allow them to focus on the outcomes that they aim to achieve with government, while allowing the flexibility to iterate and adapt along the way. Strategies include:
- Determine whether to “Build First” or “Build Together.” When determining whether to develop and prove a model alone or to build together with government from the start, enterprises considered their partnership goal and need for ownership, and typically ended up customizing a solution between the two extremes.
- Determine type and level of evidence needed. Enterprises went beyond impact evidence and recognized that evidence needs may become more complex in later stages or in donor-dependent countries.
- Find and cultivate the right champions. Interviewees leveraged organizations already working in-country, sought contacts interested in iteration, institutionalized relationships through MOUs and contracts, and found ways to decrease the physical distance between champions and solutions.
- Demonstrate true partnership with listening, humility, and respect. It may seem obvious, but according to interviewees, it is worth repeating: approach government with respect and humility, communicate regularly, and show how you are responding to feedback with change.
- Proactively manage — or avoid — politics. Enterprises spread out risk by engaging across political ideologies, working with technical experts, managing multiple projects simultaneously, and being wary of promises made around elections.
- Help maintain quality of impact over time. To ensure continued quality of programs (especially when government takes over implementation), enterprises recommended the following: breaking solutions into small steps; creating roadmaps while still empowering partners to adapt; using test sites to iterate; creating monitoring tools; and seeking sustainable funding sources.
Read next: First, define your government partnership goal, Manage the “What Ifs?” of government partnerships, or return to see all articles in Government Partners.
Access the full PDF of Leveraging Government Partnerships for Scaled Impact here or the key takeaways checklist here.
This article was written by Erin Worsham, Kimberly Langsam, and Ellen Martin, and released in September 2018.
Government Partnerships Content in Scaling Pathways: Methodology in Brief
The lessons and advice presented here are driven by the experiences of leading social enterprises and funders focused on scaling impact. In developing these articles, the Scaling Pathways team did the following:
• Conducted literature reviews and analyses.
• Interviewed and included examples from eleven leading nonprofit or hybrid social enterprises, identified by Skoll Foundation, USAID, and Mercy Corps as having relevant and broadly applicable lessons.
• Surveyed 100+ social enterprises within the Skoll Foundation and USAID portfolios.
• Surfaced key lessons learned and advice from focus groups and interviews with major funders.
