Our partnerships and projects are built upon solid foundations of coordination and cooperation.
In Australia Anglicans in Development (AID) works closely with churches, government and other NGOs to build best practice approaches to addressing poverty. Overseas, AID’s partners empower their local communities to meet and work together so that the work of development is shared, and successes are owned by the whole community.
Partnership acknowledges the strengths of both sides in the relationship. It strives for mutuality, equality, accountability and respect.
AID’S Development Partners Include:
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council (NATSIAC)
The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea (ACPNG)
Anglicare Papua New Guinea (APNG)
Episcopal Community Action for Renewal and Empowerment (E-CARE) (community outreach arm of The Episcopal Church in the Philippines)
Visayas and Mindanao Regional Organisation for Development (IFI-VIMROD) (part of the Philippine Independent Church – Iglesia Filipina Independiente)
The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM) in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
The (Anglican) Church of the Province of Myanmar (CPM)
The Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Anglicans Development Services Eastern (an outreach of the Anglican Church of Kenya) (ADSE)
Zambian Anglican Council Outreach Program (ZACOP)
Anglican Missions Board (New Zealand)
The (Anglican) Church of Ceylon
Diocese of Eldoret (part of the Anglican Church of Kenya)
ABM’s Church Partner’s Include:
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Anglican Council (NATSIAC)
The Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea (ACPNG)
The Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP)
Philippine Independent Church – Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI)
The Anglican Church of Melanesia (ACOM) in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
The (Anglican) Church of the Province of Myanmar (CPM)
The Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
Zambia Anglican Council (ZAC)
Partnership in Mission has been a central feature of ABM’s work for more than 50 years.
Assistance with fundraising is a great way to support the work of ABM and AID. Here parishioners from Holy Trinity Launceston, Tas, made and sold jams, preserves, and their own design of commemorative boxes of Anzac Biscuits for ANZAC Day. © Holy Trinity, Launceston.
NATSIAC is a key partner for ABM and AID © ABM/Brad Chapman
Suggested Guidelines for Successful Church Partnerships
These guidelines are a useful resource, designed to help dioceses, parishes and schools think through the issues surrounding partnerships and avoid some of the pitfalls – like rushing in to fund projects when a relationship hasn’t been firmly established. It also highlights the benefits of working through a mission organisation such as ABM.
Measuring the effectiveness of ABM’s Development Partnerships
Some of ABM’s partnerships are more than 150 years old. The newest are 10 years old, and most are somewhere in between. All work at the grassroots, engaging with their local communities and institutions to change lives for the better.
ABM’s approach to its development partnerships has long been to work largely from Australia, providing support to projects identified by partners, projects which play both to the partner strengths and to ABM’s own capacity.
ABM also aims to provide some support to partners as they work to strengthen and improve their organisational capabilities. This includes areas such as climate change advocacy, financial management, community development approaches, organisational sustainability and strategic planning.
To examine the effectiveness of ABM’s seven international development partnerships, ABM prepares a Partnership Effectiveness Report every three years. Our most recent report covered the period July 2016 to December 2019.
The report drew on a number of sources: ABM’s online 2019 Partner Relationship Survey (completed by 18 individuals from all seven partners), as well as ABM staff notes and observations from visits to partners, learning from partners’ visits to Australia, partner reporting, frequent email and phone communication between ABM and its partners, and an annual partnership reflection meeting.
The Partnership Effectiveness Report examined four aspects of partnership:
1. Shared goals and agreed direction
2. Honesty and trust
3. Partner capacity building
4. Two-way learning and influence (between ABM and its partners)
What ABM learned from the process
It was gratifying to learn that ABM and its partners share the same values, and that there was a high level of mutual trust and respect – elements that are essential for effective partnerships.
It was also good to learn more from our partners about what they understood by the term “localisation”. This knowledge will help ABM further improve its processes to strengthen localisation in its overseas program work.
In terms of improving our relations its partners, ABM should communicate more extensively with partners on sensitive compliance-related topics such as the need for effective policies and procedures on counter-terrorism, child protection and sexual misconduct. Improved communication on these topics could give partners more opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings, would enable ABM to better explain why Australian aid agencies require such checks, and explore how such checks can be handled sensitively.
Whilst it is good to know that partners greatly appreciate ABM’s support of their capacity development, especially in areas such as Assets-based Community Development (ABCD) and financial management, ABM and its partners should work towards improved tracking and follow-up of the outcomes of capacity strengthening activities. Ideas to improve tracking include improving ABM’s project proposal and reporting templates for partners, checking that partners provide details about planned and actual follow-up when they complete ABM’s partner capacity strengthening proposal and report templates, and ABM more regularly updating its own Capacity Building Matrix to track follow up on past capacity building activities.
ABM should encourage all partners to develop their own capacity building strategies as part of broader strategic planning.
In order to grow in partnership, ABM should continue to reflect at least annually on what it has learned from its partners, and should communicate with partners about what ABM has learned.
ABM should work to improve the wording of its Partner Relationship Survey to reduce the likelihood of unclear responses, and should consider conducting more surveys using face-to-face methods, rather than just through the electronic survey.
ABM is grateful to all our development partners, who enable us to achieve amazing results in partnership with communities around the world.
ABM extends its grateful thanks to its development partners:
Anglican Church of Melanesia in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
Anglicare Papua New Guinea and Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea
Church of the Province of Myanmar
Episcopal Community Action for Renewal and Empowerment (E-CARE)
Visayas and Mindanao Regional Office for Development (of the Philippines Independent Church)
(IFI-VIMROD)
Anglican Development Services, Eastern (in Kenya)
Zambia Anglican Council Outreach Program
