The partnership MOU: Moving from talk to action

The international development community around the world is talking about the power and potential of partnerships. Governments, bilateral and multilateral funding agencies, implementing companies, civil society organizations, universities, foundations, and private sector organizations are increasingly looking to work together and share development risks, resources and rewards. No doubt important conversations are happening, but how do organizations take the leap from talking about partnerships to actually forming them? One way to make real progress during partnership negotiations is to get the ideas down on paper. This documentation, even if preliminary, can begin to form the basis of memorandum of understanding — a critical stage in the partnering process. The business and legal communities loosely define an MOU as a formal agreement between two parties. An MOU generally expresses common intentions and actions between parties. It is more formal than a verbal or handshake agreement, but typically not legally binding. The donor community is now adapting and applying that definition to accommodate development partnerships. For instance, the U.S. Agency for International Development defines an MOU as “a signed non-obligating and legally nonbinding document that describes the intentions of the alliance members to work together to address a shared development challenge.” Once the design of the partnership has been discussed, stakeholders can begin drafting an MOU. The document can vary in length and level of detail, but best practice is to limit it to the essentials of the initiative and relationship between parties so that it does get not bogged down in too many details. By ensuring all parties agree on the partnership goals, roles and responsibilities, you significantly decrease the chances of misunderstandings and conflict. At a minimum, an effective MOU should comprise the following: • Purpose of the partnership • Partner roles and responsibilities • Resource commitments • Implementation issues such as governance structure, monitoring, evaluation and reporting • Partnership timeline (effective date, duration, end date) • Rules on amendments and termination To help members understand how an MOU should be structured and provide a head start on forming a partnership through this type of agreement, Devex prepared a development partnerships template based on USAID’s Global Development Alliance MOU template. You can access it here. Check out more funding trends analyses online, and subscribe to Money Matters to receive the latest contract award and shortlist announcements, and procurement and fundraising news.