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Working in partnerships

to foster employment and social inclusion

The EQUAL experience in Portugal

Ana Vale EQUAL Managing Authority - PORTUGAL

Av. da República, 62-7º - 1050-197 LisboaTel: (351) 21 799 49 30   Fax: (351) 21 793 39 20 E-mail: equal@equal.pt Internet: www.equal.pt

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Points to be addressed

• The EQUAL Programme

• Why partnerships

• How we set up our partnerships

• Working in partnership – added value

• Lessons learned

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The EQUAL Programme

The Community Initiative EQUAL is a programme (2000-2007), financed by the European Social Fund, aimed to promote new means of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in connection with the labour market.

General principles:• Partnership• Empowerment• Transnational co-operation• Innovation• Gender equality• Mainstreaming

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The EQUAL Programme

“The objective of partnership in EQUAL is to bring toghether actors who cooperate in a Development Partnership to develop an integrated approach to the multidimensional problems of discrimination by pooling their efforts and resources in pursuit of innovative solutions to jointly define problems and common goals.”

COM(2003)840 – 30.12.2003

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Why partnerships?

• Complex and multi-dimensional problems

• Integrated approach

• Competences complementarity • Improving efficiency and effectiveness

• Promoting innovation

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How we set up partnerships

4 Steps:

1. Identification of the problem in a specific context territorial/sectoral

2. Identification of the organisations that have a contribution to give to the solution (diversity and complementarity of competences, knowledge of the target group, employers)

3. Definition of each partner responsabilities and budget and rules for fonctioning (Partnership Agreement)

4. Identification of the lead partner of the Development Partnership

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PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT CYCLE

Preparatory Work

Mainstreaming

Future Action

Development & Delivery

Initiation

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Working in PartnershipAdded Value

• to provide more comprehensive, complete and consistent responses;

• to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions;

• to bridge the gaps between services and provisions, bringing them together to tackle problems that no partner, working alone, is able to resolve;

• to combat the predominantly individualist culture that is wholly incompatible with the complexity and interdependence of the problems;

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Working in PartnershipAdded Value

• to develop communities of practices that are, in themselves, generators of new knowledge and social practices;

• for civil society to shoulder more responsibility in the implementation of social policies, namely through the creation of public-private sector Partnerships involving enterprises;

• to improve prospects for non-profit making organisations (still much dependent on public subsidy), in terms of a new, more continuous and consistent public arrangements, providing incentives for a stronger and more dynamic third sector;

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Working in PartnershipAdded Value

• for partner organisations to secure a stronger foothold in the training and employment markets in which they operate, and reap benefits from the alliances and partnerships they establish;

• to ensure continuity and self-sustainability of new services and provisions;

• to set up European cooperation networks, based on EQUAL’s transnationality principle, that bring added value to solutions at European level.

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Working in PartnershipAdded Value

To improve governance Through partnerships, civil society, NGO’s,

entreprises, public bodies, work toghether to design area-based strategies, adapt policies to local conditions and take initiatives consistent with shared policies.

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Lessons learned

• Working in partnership is an important part of the solution targeted to disadvanteged groups

• and it is also a good solution for all target groups!

• Success factors for working in partnership:– time and financing to set up partnerships;– clear definition of partners roles and responsabilities;– adequate budget to support every partner;– identification of for each partner gains.

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Lessons learned

• Developing partnerships requires:– specific technical support;– tranining project promoters (how to work in partnership, team

building, leadership, etc);– making available specific tools (project management, information

systems, guides, etc);– a learning culture.

• To set up and develop partnerships a flexible environement is needed without burocratic constraints or rigid legal rules