ABSTRACT
The wealth of experience and knowledge is held variously by practitioners, policymakers, theorists, experts, and users of water, none of whom singly can possibly be aware of all the possibilities for managing water. This chapter aims to offer observations from practice on the essential elements of a successful partnership, followed by thoughts on the criteria needed to evaluate partnerships. Organizations form partnerships when they need a more dynamic approach or a more diverse set of inputs than they can achieve alone. This point should be specifically addressed during partnership evaluation: the evaluative criteria should describe why a partnership arrangement was chosen over unilateral implementation. Partnerships undoubtedly contribute to better outreach, with many partnerships becoming not only innovative but also involving all sorts of different players. Partnerships with the private sector can be particularly constructive in improving public sector efficiency, for example in delivering municipal water services.
