Around the world, actors from across different sectors of society and geographies, each with their own needs and interests, are finding ways to work together in the pursuit of shared goals and objectives. Multi-stakeholder platforms and partnerships have emerged as a critical vehicle for bringing these actors together. As their number, reach, and ambitions grow, many within and external to these collaborations are seeking to know more about what works, for whom, and why.

However, traditional notions of causality that specify clear cause and effect relationships are rarely the case in partnerships – which often contribute to outcomes through multiple pathways and combinations of activities. New ways of knowing and doing are often difficult to define and challenging to measure. The effects or possible results of collaboration aren’t always clear at the start and may take a long time to accrue — for example, they may spark new ideas among participants, leading to unanticipated and unplanned activities, that generate results for unknown benefactors. As partnerships are rarely fixed, they adapt and change over time as stakeholders come and go; contexts shift; funding increases or decreases; and directions change, meaning rigid adherence to pre-specified measures of success risks missing the value of a collaboration.

The value of learning and evaluation for partnerships needs to be established through different mechanisms than what many are used to. Preserving space for emergent and sometimes intangible results; allocating appropriate resources and energy; and commitment to strengthening the capacities of collaborators to design and implement continuous learning and evaluation approaches is essential.

Day Four Projects has produced the following videos to introduce these foundations for Good Collaboration.