Organisation and contact details
Holy Rosary Sisters, Holy Rosary Convent, West Park, Artane, Dublin 5, Ireland
Tel/Fax +353 1 8187475
Dl House 8480603
Email: nmcnamara@solsticeconsult.com|
Associated NGPA research project
Morse, Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study|
Project dates
1 November 2006 to March 2007
Objectives
The goal of 'Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study' is "To develop and test an analytical framework for partnership by drawing on experience in the voluntary, public and private sectors. The new framework will be employed to analyse the aid chain of the Catholic Church, focussing specifically on the relationships between the diocese of Abuja Ecclesiastical Province and their major Catholic-based donors."
One of the outcomes of 'Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study' will be a set of guidelines of 'good practice' with regard to the management of partnership that could be adopted by field agencies in the South and predominantly Northern-based donors. However, given that 'Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study' is a small project dissemination of these findings to a wider practitioner community was not addressed in the original proposal other than via journal papers and conference presentations. Both these outputs, while ideal for an academic audience, would not be particularly accessible to practitioners. It is intended to produce a more substantial report (based on the papers) for those directly involved in the research. The report will encapsulate the main findings of the project and provide a set of recommendations. However, given that the project focussed on the Catholic Church-based aid chain many of the recommendations for participants will be specific to that context.
The proposed Fellowship will seek to add value to 'Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study' by specifically targeting the dissemination of findings to a much wider range of practitioners, notably:
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development personnel in field agencies
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donors (faith-based and secular)
It is important to note that the material will be developed from within the user community, and the applicant for the Fellowship is from this community.
Activities and outputs
The main activities and outputs from the Fellowship will be as follows:
Activities
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Workshop in Abuja, Nigeria (with Dr Stephen Morse)
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One day workshop to be held in Abuja to discuss project findings with user groups (development and health personnel and donors - CRS, CAFOD, Trocaire, Misereor).
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Also included in the workshop will be non-Catholic groups (Islamic Aid, bilateral and multilateral aid agencies, Nigerian government officials).
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As well as being a dissemination exercise in itself which would add to 'Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study', the workshop will also seek to obtain guidance on the content and design of a manual on partnership.
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Production of a manual on 'partnership' that can be circulated to user groups. Intention is to highlight the importance of partnership as well as what is 'good' and 'bad' practice in partnership.
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The manual will also stress the importance of 'reflective practice' in partnership (suggestions as to how a partnership can be analysed by those involved)
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Manual to be launched in Ireland with press coverage (TV, Radio and Newspaper)
Outputs
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Workshop report
(to be written in Nigeria and completed by end of November 06)
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Manual
(to be submitted to publisher by end January 07)
The manual is the main output from the Fellowship. It will contain case histories of 'good' (and indeed 'bad') practice based on experience articulated within the data collection for 'Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study' that support or contest the notion of partnership as equals. Readers will be encouraged to see whether they can identify with the stories being told. It will also seek to address pressing problems hitherto not addressed by donors in particular issues around disengagement and sustainability. For example, the need to encourage a dimension of action research into all programmes and projects.
However, and most important of all, it will provide a series of questions that will prompt users to analyse their current position within partnerships with donors and others. One of the major generic outcomes from 'Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study' (based on fieldwork conducted in 2005) is the importance of reflective practice and the need for implanting reflection-action-reflection as part of the process of partnership. Readers will be encouraged to provide their answers to the questions and use that as a way of thinking through their position in whatever partnerships they may be engaged with. In effect this was the approach taken during the 'Analysing Partnership in Aid Chains: A Catholic Church Case Study' fieldwork. The workshop in Nigerian will be used as the basis for framing the reflective analysis questions to be included in the manual.
It is anticipated that the reflective analysis encouraged by the manual will ultimately improve the practice of partnership within aid chains and ultimately this will benefit the poor who are meant to gain from the aid.
The manual will be made available in both a 'hard' form and also on the internet (hosted at first by the University of Reading and Catholic-based donors in Ireland, Germany and USA). It will be published in conjunction with On-Stream Publications (Cork, Ireland) who specialise in such material. The intention is to generate a design that can appeal to a general readership of practitioner (not just faith-based) and hence encourage reflective analysis of partnership.