We define two concepts for partners to consider in their partnership design:
- Collaborative Advantage is the extra power, alchemy or ‘magic’ – that allows a group of actors to collectively deliver more than the sum of their input parts i.e. 1+1>>2. It is the intrinsic reason why a partnership approach can deliver solutions and impact beyond that of a single actor, or actors working independently.
Or: How is it that by working together we’ll be able to deliver significantly more?
- The Partnership Delta or Partnership Difference (ΔP) is the additional impact a partnership delivers compared with single actor approaches, as a result of the Collaborative Advantage.
Or: What specific extra impact will be able to achieve?
Partnerships that focus on doing traditional development better
There is a whole series of different Collaborative Advantages from innovation to standard setting, delivering at scale to exploiting synergies (see next page). Often partnership will deliver on several Collaborative Advantages at any one
time. The Partnership Delta is the differential impact that results from those Collaborative Advantages.
Partnerships that focus on system transformation
The Collaborative Advantage is that the partnership facilitates the combining or aligning of multiple different resources from different sectors into levers that together have the power to transform a system.
The Partnership Delta is the ongoing value generated by the new system in comparison with the old (for example, the transformation from an unsustainable to a sustainable palm oil value chain results in the saving of millions of acres of virgin forest which would otherwise have been destroyed over time).
It is important to appreciate that many of the Collaborative Advantages that can be used in better development partnerships can also provide levers for system transformation (eg critical mass of organisations can lead to effective advocacy and hence policy shift, a key lever in system change).