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At
present, MS Nepal is working in long-term partnership with 12
partners within four Developmental Focus areas. The agreements
operate with 7 modes of cooperation-one time grant, cooperation
agreement, project document, pre-partnership (early partnership)
agreement, partnership agreement, linkage North-South and
technical assistance.
Nine
of these partnerships fall within the Development Focus areas of
'Community Self-Reliance' and 'Demarginalizing the Marginalized'
and at least two reflect developmental focus to strengthen the
NGOs. The present NGO partners are diverse in nature raising from
advocacy organizations (BASE) to NGOs/CBOs selected for
implementation of specific development activities. Three-fourths
of the partnerships have been evaluated as being mutually
beneficial in the Annual Review and the knowledge of MS-Nepal
staff and partners about MS Nepal, development and management of
partnerships has been reported to have significantly increased.
Each
year, beginning 1996, MS Nepal has started to prepare itself for
three new early partnerships, one in each of the geographical
focus areas, by end-1997, MS Nepal established cooperation with at
least two organizations to strengthen NGOs/civil society in Nepal.
Types
of Partners
Essentially,
seven types of partners can be identified:
- Government
institution
- Semi-government
organization
- DDC/VDC
- INGO
- National
NGO
- District-based
NGO
- Local
CBOs/Community
Criteria
for choice of partners
In
choosing partners, the seven criteria given below need to be
considered:
- The
partner should share common vision and principles with MS
Nepal and should be willing to abide by the written agreement
worked out between them and MS Nepal.
- The
partner should operate in a democratic and transparent way and
should practice good governance.
- The
partner should be responsive.
- Size
of the partner should be medium, that is, it should be neither
too big nor too small.
- The
partner should be working near the target group area
(proximity to the primary stakeholders).
- Marginalized
groups should get focus in the partners' work.
- Districts
should be chosen with low HDI, GDI and GEM with feasibility to
cluster DWs.
- Partners
should be limited to the prioritised districts except for
advocacy work.
Future
Partner Profile
Both
the changing national and international scene and the policy shift
in MS Nepal prompt the need for a strategic shift in the formation
of future partnerships. Essentially, seven factors need to be
taken into account in such a shift:
- Changing
demands of the process of political representation and the
emerging civil society in Nepal
- The
need for organization building
- The
new stress on partnership with GOs and Semi-GOs (DDCs and VDCs)
- The
need for a linkage with CBOs at the local level
- The
increased state on NGOs as providers of social and development
services, as agents of the government delivery system.
- The
political turmoil in districts
- Narrower
geographical focus for more intense impact.
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