What do great partnerships for gender equality look like?

[Joseph Barnes]

This is a great opportunity to work closely with the Evaluation Team Leader and contribute to generating credible, gender-responsive evidence that informs decision-making and strengthens programme impact.

📍 Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh (home-based with travel to project locations)
📅 Apply by: 24 February 2026, 5:00 PM
🔗 Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gar4ciRr

If you are passionate about feminist evaluation, gender equality, and rigorous evidence that drives change (or know someone who is) please apply or share within your networks.

[Rituu B Nanda]

Tina Wallace, UK (response on Pelican community)

Agree with penny's comments on need for organisations to know where the staff and Org stand on gender equality issues and how they understand and work w them. Such audits often highlight major differences in understanding and commitment. Definitions of gender equality and the work in practice can vary hugely and understanding 'ourselves' as well as those we partner with is critical.

As important is the nature of the relationship. Are the powder dynamics clear and addressed? Who is setting the rules and terms of the partnership? Currently donors can dominate and impose strategies, says if reporting etc and relations are highly unequal.

Is as much respect paid to local skills, knowledge and analysis as those brought by a UN agency or Ingo? How culturally and contextually sensitive are those working together in a partnership across hierarchies of knowledge, power, decision making?

Some good partnerships I have seen recently are based on real respect for those working on the ground, for local knowledge and research, and where those w funds see their role as enabling and not controlling. This applies across international and local partnerships as well as those between orgs working in the same country.

There also have to be shared aims - do they share faith in working together in programmes, advocacy etc. Will they share their learning good and of failures and will credit be properly attributed to different players?

These relationships are complex and require real listening and negotiation on all sides, but do organisational strategies, targets, reporting demands allow for this to happen? Sometimes a good fit is found, more often it is a process that requires learning and adjustment, easy and difficult conversations.
Most are relationships of unequals and require     an open approach often hard in time bound projects.

So much more.... But this is long enough!
Tina

[Rituu B Nanda]

Michelle Halse

Hello All

You may find this recently published research report from the Partnership Brokers Association relevant.

http://partnershipbrokers.org/w/3953/emerging-partnership-lessons-f...

"Published as part of the Promoting Effective Partnering (PEP) project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, the report draws on the experiences of partnership brokers worldwide.  It explores the emerging lessons about partnering in diverse contexts – exploring the factors at national and local levels that impact what partnering is possible.

PBA is one of 5 partners in the project. The other 4 are: The Collective Leadership Institute, Partnerships Resource Centre, Partnerships in Practice & The Partnering Initiative.

To read the report: http://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/recent-current-research/

For more information on the project, visit the PRC website: http://www.rsm.nl/prc/our-research/projects/promoting-effective-par...

This is not specifically about gender partnerships, however it is definitely an attempt to extract lessons from actual experience, and in diverse contexts.

The Partnership Brokers Association is ...."committed to a process of continuous enquiry by undertaking action research into the role that partnership brokers are playing in supporting effective, dynamic and impactful collaboration. We see our work in this field as a virtuous circle of proof of concept and continuous improvement in the professional practice of partnership brokering.

All our learning activities involve:

• Action / practice-based research
• Being multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder in character
• Practitioner-generated, developed and delivered learning activities
• Working closely with our alumni network, partners and those who seek our support
• Validated by a system of peer review"

Hope this is helpful.

 

I hope it is useful for your community to discover the Partnership Brokers Association and the learning they are doing on what it really takes to make partnerships successful.

I'm not sure where you're based, or those in your community, but there is a Partnership Brokers Training program in Washington DC in July, with a few places left, if people are interested in learning more, especially those with responsible for the process management of partnerships, from scoping right through to reviewing and considering options for sustainability and moving on.

See here for more information.
eepurl.com/bZCqM1

[Rituu B Nanda]

Michelle Halse

Hello All

You may find this recently published research report from the Partnership Brokers Association relevant.

http://partnershipbrokers.org/w/3953/emerging-partnership-lessons-f...

"Published as part of the Promoting Effective Partnering (PEP) project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, the report draws on the experiences of partnership brokers worldwide.  It explores the emerging lessons about partnering in diverse contexts – exploring the factors at national and local levels that impact what partnering is possible.

PBA is one of 5 partners in the project. The other 4 are: The Collective Leadership Institute, Partnerships Resource Centre, Partnerships in Practice & The Partnering Initiative.

To read the report: http://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/recent-current-research/

For more information on the project, visit the PRC website: http://www.rsm.nl/prc/our-research/projects/promoting-effective-par...

This is not specifically about gender partnerships, however it is definitely an attempt to extract lessons from actual experience, and in diverse contexts.

The Partnership Brokers Association is ...."committed to a process of continuous enquiry by undertaking action research into the role that partnership brokers are playing in supporting effective, dynamic and impactful collaboration. We see our work in this field as a virtuous circle of proof of concept and continuous improvement in the professional practice of partnership brokering.

All our learning activities involve:

• Action / practice-based research
• Being multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder in character
• Practitioner-generated, developed and delivered learning activities
• Working closely with our alumni network, partners and those who seek our support
• Validated by a system of peer review"

Hope this is helpful.

 

I hope it is useful for your community to discover the Partnership Brokers Association and the learning they are doing on what it really takes to make partnerships successful.

I'm not sure where you're based, or those in your community, but there is a Partnership Brokers Training program in Washington DC in July, with a few places left, if people are interested in learning more, especially those with responsible for the process management of partnerships, from scoping right through to reviewing and considering options for sustainability and moving on.

See here for more information.
eepurl.com/bZCqM1

[Joy Eze]

Hello Rituu,Thanks for the resources.

[Rituu B Nanda]

Michelle Halse

Hello All

You may find this recently published research report from the Partnership Brokers Association relevant.

http://partnershipbrokers.org/w/3953/emerging-partnership-lessons-f...

"Published as part of the Promoting Effective Partnering (PEP) project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands, the report draws on the experiences of partnership brokers worldwide.  It explores the emerging lessons about partnering in diverse contexts – exploring the factors at national and local levels that impact what partnering is possible.

PBA is one of 5 partners in the project. The other 4 are: The Collective Leadership Institute, Partnerships Resource Centre, Partnerships in Practice & The Partnering Initiative.

To read the report: http://partnershipbrokers.org/w/learning/recent-current-research/

For more information on the project, visit the PRC website: http://www.rsm.nl/prc/our-research/projects/promoting-effective-par...

This is not specifically about gender partnerships, however it is definitely an attempt to extract lessons from actual experience, and in diverse contexts.

The Partnership Brokers Association is ...."committed to a process of continuous enquiry by undertaking action research into the role that partnership brokers are playing in supporting effective, dynamic and impactful collaboration. We see our work in this field as a virtuous circle of proof of concept and continuous improvement in the professional practice of partnership brokering.

All our learning activities involve:

• Action / practice-based research
• Being multi-disciplinary and multi-stakeholder in character
• Practitioner-generated, developed and delivered learning activities
• Working closely with our alumni network, partners and those who seek our support
• Validated by a system of peer review"

Hope this is helpful.

 

I hope it is useful for your community to discover the Partnership Brokers Association and the learning they are doing on what it really takes to make partnerships successful.

I'm not sure where you're based, or those in your community, but there is a Partnership Brokers Training program in Washington DC in July, with a few places left, if people are interested in learning more, especially those with responsible for the process management of partnerships, from scoping right through to reviewing and considering options for sustainability and moving on.

See here for more information.
eepurl.com/bZCqM1

[Joseph Barnes]

Many thanks Penny, Tina and Michelle for your recent posts, and for everyone across Pelican, Gender and Evaluation and Twitter that participated, including Getaneh, Colette, Jude, Susanne, Gana, Joy, Mary, Joaquin, Rick, Tina, Penny, and Michelle for contributing, and Rituu for helping to facilitate. In case it is useful, here is my brief synthesis of the discussion (apologies if I haven't quite captured everything - there was a lot of value to squeeze in).

Jude started the discussion by reminding us that gender equality partnerships need to cut across thematic areas and address multiple age groups. Gana gave the example of the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality project in Afghanistan as integrating different issues and groups of stakeholders effectively. 

Colette drew on the example of Ireland and highlighted the importance of leadership that exercises feminist values - be they women or men - and that it should not be assumed that leaders will automatically seek equality for their own gender group. Later in the discussion, Penny returned to the importance of leadership, but this time in the context of organisations and making space in everyday organisational life to share conversations with partners that develop a deep and trusting relationship.

Susanne drew attention to the importance of partners feeling equally respected, a theme that was reflected both in Twitter comments and Tina's reflections on her experiences. These included the importance of reflecting on ourselves, being honest about the power dynamics in a partnership, and developing cultural sensitivity across "hierarchies of knowledge, power and decision making". The best partnerships give real respect to those working on the ground, whilst funders position themselves as enablers.

Susanne's comments on the importance of long term commitments that are based on deep listening and participation echoed the insights of Joy, who gave the example of Vital Voices Global Leadership Network in the US and WIMBIZ in Nigeria. Joy also emphasised the importance of shared vision, which was the theme of Getaneh's contribution exploring how to balance the motivations of different partners – especially when one is social and the other profit. He suggests that integrating gender equality into other interventions is a way to approach this, and shared some videos and other resources (linked to at the end of this post).

Other examples of positive partnerships shared by participants included work on land rights by the Embassy of Sweden, Act Change Transform, and the Centre for Indigenous Women and Children in Kenya. Rick's post highlighted how very useful often guidance on partnership is derived from repeating norms rather than as a result of critical reflection on evidence from such partnerships, an issue that Tina also picked up on.

Joaquín shared links to the EU EQUAL initiative platform which is one attempt to do exactly that, and learn from empirical experience (see links below). These lessons included the importance of power balance between partners and capacity development of partners, both issues highlighted by other discussants. Michelle also shared an analysis of lessons report, this time by the Partnership Brokers Association (again, see links below).

To finish off our discussion, Tina and Penny shared thoughts on the importance of organisations (and people) understanding their own positions on gender equality, and ensuring that these understandings are aligned to their commitments and practices in reality. They identified participatory organisational gender self assessments as important change interventions for promoting awareness, building capacity and accountability in this regard.

I hope that this captures the richness of the discussion and highlights the major points – apologies if I have missed something. On behalf of the evaluation team working with UN Women, thank you very much, and wishing you all the very best in your endeavours.

Joseph

[Joy Eze]

Great!you did well.The discussion was very interesting and educating.

[Joseph Barnes]

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Links to resources shared by participants

Videos relating to Public Private Partnerships:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZWgm6ZYMUU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcyGLZ8e1M0

Summary of an evaluation report, for Oxfam-Novib, which can be accessed from
http://www.crjournals.org/CRJEGS/pdf/2014/September/Gobezie.pdf
http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.9.64362/
http://gendereval.ning.com/forum/topics/empowering-women-through-ru...

Horton et al (Perspective on Partnerships: A literature review" 2009) in which they say (p85)
"The literature on partnership includes both analytical research on how partnerships actually function – how they are established and operate – and normative guidelines and tools about how they should be established and operate. Although one would expect that guidelines would be based on evidence, in practice research studies do not always present suggestions for action, and guidelines seldom seem to be based on prior research"

EU EQUAL initiative platform (an initiative that run for 7 years working on gender equality and women empowerment in the EU labour markets). http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/equal_consolidated/about/key-...

A research report from the Partnership Brokers Association on emerging lessons about partnering in diverse contexts http://partnershipbrokers.org/w/3953/emerging-partnership-lessons-f...

[yasmin karim]

There are two factors important for effective partnerships for gender equality and women s empowerment. 1. Mutual trust of the partners and 2. Understanding and giving value to feminist approach. Feminism is been interpreted wrongly in general, therefore it s important to understand what feminism is about.

One of very successful examples on women s empowerment for gender equality in my work organization has been Self Empowerment project funded by Planning and Development Department of Government of Gilgit Baltistan in Pakistan, that was executed by AKRSP where women only Markets idea was conceptualised. Women only markets is a market place with a number of shops in a covered area, only for women buyers, women producers and women sellers. In a very conservative mountain society, it was important to harness the potential of women entrepreneurship and expose them into Market systems with a cautious and acceptable approach(acceptable to both conservative clerics and families).  

[Marcia Brandon]

Dear Joseph in the Caribbean we are not so focused on gender equality anymore.  I guess we think we have done enough, but there are so many things left to do.  We boost on how many women have managerial jobs but at what price? we also demean women in so many ways and men as well.  We do need to focus more on gender relations here.  I am sorry I am not answering your question but I am not sure I can give an example now. Not to say there are none, just that I cannot come up with any at this time.