Datum: 23.06.2020 – 26.06.2020
Ort: Virtual Conference

Starting on June 23, the 7th biennial International Symposium on Cross-Sector Social Interactions (CSSI 2020) hosted by the the Kemmy Business School (KBS) of the University of Limmerick took place virtually. This year´s conference topic was „Putting Partnerships in their Place: Exploring the relationships between Practices, Policy and Place in Cross Sector Organising.”

On June 24th, our project lead Susanne Salz was part of a panel conversation to explore the following question: „Partnership Brokering in Cross-Sector Collaborations: Does Place Matter?”. The panel was moderated by Darian Stibbe of The Partnering Initiative and led by Leda Stott of the Partnership Brokers Association. Further panellists were Basanta Shrestha from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Martin Kalungu Banda from the Presencing Institute.

The panellists had the chance to share perspectives about partnership brokering from their specific ‘places’. This entailed geographic place, political position, sector background, organisational form or the starting place of an individual’s mind-set or values. The panellists not only discussed the role of partnership brokering in each of these places, but also the skills required to do so as well as learnings concerning leadership.

Leda Stott set the scene by giving a quick introduction into partnership brokering, highlighting the „intermediary” role of a partnership broker, meaning that a broker not only manages relationships but in fact creates equitable relationships and trust among partners. In this sense, a partnership broker needs a variety of skills to comply with a lot of different tasks such as initiating partnerships. In order to ensure the development and growth of all partners, non-directive leadership skills are essential according to Leda.

With regard to the political context, Susanne Salz pointed out the need for Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSPs) as emphasised in the 2030 Agenda. The changed landscape of multilateralism towards inter- or transnational cooperation is essential to sustainable development according to her. Martin Kalungu Banda mentioned the need to get into the mind of the partners to do the work (as a broker). In his opinion, this gives legitimacy to a broker.