Partnerships are core to our work at the Collaborative. We focus our partnerships on shared learning, building on each other’s work and lifting each other up. We partner with organisations in different ways:

• Learning partnerships which are rooted in a shared journey over the long-term to strengthen VAW prevention programmes;
• Strategic partnerships through which we co-design and co-implement initiatives and
• Solidarity partnerships through which we learn and support other like-minded organisations.

We are feminist in our approach which means we listen first; we openly share information, knowledge and skills; and we continuously reflect on how power is distributed and acted upon.

Between September 2019 and February 2021, we partnered with ICS-SP, an NGO that works with families, communities, and other stakeholders in rural areas of Africa (currently Kenya, Tanzania, and Cote d’Ivoire) to create safe and nurturing environments for children to reach their full potential. The learning partnership focussed on strengthening the ICS teams’ capacity to address the intersections between violence against women (VAW) and violence against children (VAC) in their Skillful Parenting programme. This included:

• Engage the team in gender transformative learning
• Collaborative work on reviewing the theory of change
• Integrate VAW/VAC considerations into the parenting curriculum 
• Strengthen the M&E framework. 

To find out more about this partnership – take a look at this video!

Since 2019 we have accompanied the Australian Government’s Nabilan (Ending Violence Against Women and Children) Program in Timor-Leste, as they work Marie Stopes Timor-Leste to adapt Stepping Stones into a contextually-relevant group-based curriculum for Timor-Leste, called NeNaMu. From an initial in-person VAW prevention and programme adaptation workshop and ongoing virtual support, we have supported the: 

• Development of the NeNaMu theory of change and logframe 
• Implemented a best-practice approach to the curriculum adaptation, including pre-testing individual sessions and the entire curriculum before moving to a pilot
• Supported the team to develop tools for self-reflection and documentation of their processes and adaptations to the material. 

The resulting curriculum is relevant for Timor-Leste, maintains fidelity to the Stepping Stones model, and draws on other evidence-based prevention models such as SASA! and Indashyikirwa.

This partnership with Jhipego Nigeria focused on strengthening the capacity of their VAW prevention work. We worked with them to help:

• Strengthen their partners’ understanding and application of essential concepts in VAW prevention
• Support for their co-design process which will lead to an evidence-based approach to VAW prevention that will reach thousands of people in two states of Nigeria.

As an implementing partner in UNFPA Nepal’s GBV Prevention and Response project Phase II (2021-2024), our role is to provide capacity strengthening and technical assistance to UNFPA Nepal and its two key implementing partners for the project -VSO Nepal and Ipas Nepal (and their downstream partners). As part of this, we have:

• Identified and trained a cohort of Master Trainers on GBV prevention and response in gender transformative approaches. 
• Mentored and supported these Master Trainers throughout the project period, as required. For more information on the master trainers’ training, take a look at this video.
• Conducted formative research to inform effective implementation
• Reviewed, revised and tested the GBV prevention and response training curricula.

Since 2019, we have worked in partnership with UN Women Asia Pacific to strengthen the capacity of their staff and partners on VAW prevention. This has included;

• Collaborative work on prevention programme design and evaluation, including integrating behaviour change and social norms change approaches.
• Co-developed a regional UN Women and UN Women India prevention strategies
• Piloted a virtual workshop series to roll out the RESPECT implementation package in Bangladesh, India and Nepal 
• Delivered a series of interactive webinars and workshops for UN Women staff and partners in the region on different prevention approaches.
• Developed evidence and practice briefs on different prevention approaches.

To find out more about this partnership – take a look at this video!