TNC Implementation
Animating a cooperation partnership
‘Animation’ activities relate to the process of getting and keeping partners involved in the project’s implementation phases.
Animation must be carefully planned and cover all project tasks. Animation roles are often assigned to project coordinators but external experts can also be contracted to animate projects. External animation contractors need skills in managing cooperation projects, in multicultural approaches and in moderation of relationships between partners.
In terms of animating project content, it is useful to set up working groups with responsibilities for particular parts of the project’s implementation. It may be useful (and more convenient) to give responsibility for each working group to individual partners.
These working groups should operate in close collaboration with the overall coordinator, who will be responsible for collating their inputs and disseminating information about working groups’ progress throughout the partnership.
Different approaches and methods can help you animate your project. Some of these are detailed below.
Write a roadmap for the cooperation project...
A common work programme, often called a ‘road map’, should be defined and validated. This agreed content can help ensure a smooth implementation of the project actions and provide a tool to support relationship between the partners. The coordinators should use this activity plan as a key tool for monitoring project progress and tracking achievements. It can also be used to highlight actions that are lagging behind and encourage partners to rectify such slippage problems.
The road-map should identify:
- the different components and steps of the cooperation project;
- the actions to be carried out for each step; and
- the responsible partners, targets and indicators for each step
Writing the road-map at an early stage helps to allow for some flexibility. It is often useful to focus on planning only major steps at the start and it is not necessary to set out every small step involved in the major steps.
The road-map should be updated, if required, to fit with any new realities that arise during the implementation phase. The consequence of each change should be well identified. Changes should be kept to a minimum in order to assist’s the road-map’s monitoring functions.
Organise meetings, visits and exchanges…
Implementing a cooperation project involving working with partners that located far away from each other. These partners are often only able to communicate by e-mail or telephone. Communication may therefore not always be an easy task.
In order for the cooperation to be ‘real’ and lead to a good exchange and tangible results, it is important to plan meetings.
Indeed, face to face contact is crucial to facilitate effective project implementation and for boosting mutual learning opportunities.
Cooperation meetings can either be regular and short, or less frequent but longer. All will depend on the issues to be discussed, the distance between the partners, the knowledge they have, and the number of partners. Whatever the type of meeting foreseen (study visits, seminars, exchange programmes, etc.), it is necessary for every planned meeting to:
- Prepare the meeting well to achieve maximum efficiency;
- Be clear on what each partner will have to pay for during and after the meeting (including in terms of accommodation and meals);
- Plan what each partner should do before the meeting and what they should bring to the meeting;
- Define a clear agenda, agreed by all participants;
- Foresee that complete minutes will have to be written and distributed to all participants for their agreement;
- Foresee which language difficulty may arise and plan professional interpretation if necessary; and
- Conclude the meeting by a short summary of what has been said and, most importantly, on the commitments which have been taken by each participant (i.e. who does what, and by what deadline!)
Organising communication between partners
Further to meetings and the signing of documents, it is important to ensure that the partners are in regular contact, notably to understand progress in different areas and how this relates to their own work. Communication is also essential to facilitate project management, monitoring, reporting and administration.
How to communicate with partners from a distance?
Examples of communication tools
A common communication plan should be agreed during the project planning stages. This provides a framework for regular telephone conferences, e-mail exchanges, feedback on the actions carried out locally in the different areas, report submission deadlines etc.
Language issues can limit these regular exchanges. This issue should be foreseen and can be overcome by using translation and interpretation services or, for long terms projects, by considering language training to boost technical know-how for relevant project personnel. All important documents should be translated whenever possible.
Take into account the cultural aspects of the project, of each partner...
Beneficial progress can be made by embracing cultural diversity as a project’s strength, and harnessing it as an engine of creativity to stimulate different ideas.
Problems can be transformed into opportunities by promoting open dialogue on different perspectives to common constraints.
Ensure the continuous commitment of partners to the cooperation project
All partners should be interested in the project and remain committed to participate in it, as established in the cooperation agreement. Further to this ‘compulsory’ commitment, it is useful to make the project a dynamic partnership in order for all participants to feel ownership, involvement, contributions and benefits from the project. This can be achieved through programmed communication actions such as organising informal events and developing common communication documents.
Actions that help ease potential partnership burdens are also effective techniques to encourage greater participation. Agreeing standardised operating procedures and producing associated guidance (such as manuals and reporting templates) helps reduce potential misunderstandings, conflicts and inefficiencies.
Continuous involvement of the local actors helps to secure the link between the cooperation project and what is happening locally. This requires regular communication with local stakeholders about up to date project progress, including results of cooperation meetings and different project phases, etc.
The local cooperation think tank (hyperlink to the ‘think tank’ text in the TNC planning section about organising a project) set up during the first steps of defining the cooperation strategy can act as a cooperation monitoring committee. If this approach is chosen, the committee should receive regular reports regarding on-going progress with each project element.
Members of the think tank/ committee could also be invited to take part in some of the project meetings and visits in order to provide an external viewpoint, and feedback on the activities carried out. These additional human inputs can create valuable benefits for all involved.
Remember...
- Do not assume that all issues are clear for all partners before they have been discussed in depth. It may therefore be better to say things twice than not at all!
- The partnership can change during the implementation phase. Hence, allow for such changes (more partners or less partners) and define from the beginning the rules for such developments.
- When cooperation partnerships involve a great number of structures, it may be useful to plan several smaller meetings rather than one big one. Yet, from time to time, it is still necessary for all partners to come together.
