IYF’s experience leveraging
partnerships for youth development
WB Y2Y Conference
Session 4: Leveraging Partnerships: The Role of Various Stakeholders
October 23, 2008
Overview
Partnerships are fundamental to IYF’s
business model…– Investing in a network of locally sustainable
youth serving organizations– Building alliances across sectors, in
particular with companies, to promote “ESS” effectiveness, scale and sustainability of youth programming
IYF Partner Network – Global Presence
3
71 countries; 166 partners
“Sub-Networks”
Programs Stats Geographical Regional Focus
EEA 6 countries 46 partners
East Asia/Pacific, South Asia, Middle East/North Africa
Entra21 (Phase 1) 18 countries 32 partners
Latin America/Caribbean
EAYPI 3 countries 16 partners
Sub-Saharan Africa
Make a Connection 26 countries 28 partners
Europe, North America, LaC, East Asia/Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa
Global Fund for Youth Development
19 countries 33 partners
East Asia/Pacific, South Asia, Europe, Latin America/Caribbean
4
Benefits of working in-network with local NGOs
• Program delivery with capacity building• Local relevance of programming • Link to national agendas and platforms • Collaboration with local networks of NGOs and
other key stakeholders • Sustainability of efforts – long lasting links to
communities • Lower operational costs • Opportunity to build strategic global alliances with
donors (across themes and regions)
Working with Companies –Partnership Values and Principles
Youth as Assets: Positive potential versus relief or remediation
Co-creation: All partners collaborate on design and implementation
Local Relevance: Programs locally defined; rooted in local youth need Leverage: Multi-themed, multi-country, multi-sector alliance building
plus product integration Metrics and Measurement: Commitment to measuring combination of
individual and societal outcomes Standards of Excellence: commitment to quality design, execution,
monitoring, and relationship stewardship Branding and Communications: Flexibility for exclusive corporate
branding Employee Engagement: Meaningful, appropriate employee
volunteerism
What makes corporate partnerships work? Experiences from global partnership with Nokia
• Shared goals and “value fit”
• Understanding and appreciation of core competencies and clearly defined roles and responsibilities
• Spirit of co-creation
• Emphasis on local relevance, with global systems to support – “glocal” NGO-corporate alliance
• Commitment to metrics and measuring impact
• Ability to refresh and renew the relationship
• Prove and Improve (taking tested programs to scale)
• Long term investments (6-8 years) allows for realistic progress for impact and sustaining programs
• Balancing social benefit with business benefit
Challenges • Mismatch between corporate schedule (quarterly)
and NGO (min of 3 years for sustained development)
• Changes are more frequent in business than NGO field
• Sometimes speak different language and different communication styles
• Competing priorities – societal benefit vs. business benefit
• When roles and responsibilities change