□  The mechanisms of interaction

Lessons from innovative partnerships suggest that interaction can be assisted by the following:

•  Building collective partnership capacity and trust Partners must display trust and commitment to the process and the ends. Mechanisms (such as group workshops) that help each organisation to understand how the others work and their respective objectives are useful tools in building a working relationship, and enable individual organisations to clarify their own objectives and key concerns.

•  The role of individual champions In practice, the partnership depends on the willingness and flexibility shown by individuals. Key individuals can create an effective working relationship; when supportive or unsupportive individuals change, the dynamic of the partnership changes.

•  Inclusive, formal structures for decision-making In large complex partnerships, to ensure the weaker stakeholders have a voice and can influence decision-making, formal vehicles (steering groups, working committees, evaluation committees etc.) must be formed at strategic and operational levels, include all formal partners, and create openings for informal stakeholders. In smaller arrangements where scale, mandate, time and expectation are less ambitious, projects might be sustained through ad hoc arrangements.

•  Transparency within the partnership Transparency within the partnership is essential to build trust and commitment. Specific mechanisms for communicating, sharing information, monitoring and evaluation, and partnership reviews help to create this explicitly, but an implicitly straightforward and open approach needs to be adopted within the partnership.

•  Appropriate contractual mechanisms Contracts are necessary as formal mechanisms to define relationships, but their successful application will depend upon parties understanding that they are in a process of ' co-production'- one where they are mutually dependent in finding optimal solutions for all concerned, and making the outcomes successful for all. Partnerships that depend solely upon contracts are bound to fail, as parties will focus upon following the letter of the contract rather than its intent.

•  Building independent capacity The building block approach to developing stakeholder capacity (discussed in Chapter 5) allows stakeholders to separately identify issues and opportunities before having to articulate them in a broader forum.

•  Clear definition of roles and responsibilities Defining responsibilities at the outset is critical in establishing an even partnership platform where each partner brings their specific skills to the table. There needs to be a process to ensure that these roles are explicitly understood and acknowledged by each partner, and that a sense of value is placed on the contribution of social and technical inputs. Flexibility is also required to enable changes in roles and relationships between partners.

•  Ensuring strong relationships to parent organisations A primary difficulty is establishing a balance between the partners' commitment to the partnership and conflicting commitments to their parent organisation. Internal mechanisms need to be established to keep relations within organisations sound: many partnerships have floundered when the partnership cell becomes marginalised from its own organisation.

•  Developing mechanisms to measure success Mechanisms to measure the different objectives of each partner need to be created in relation to overall partnership targets.

A range of mechanisms (both processes and structures) can be established to formally support the partner relationships. These must arise from the trust and confidence that should lie at the foundation of the partner relationships.