Partnership Potentials: Investigating Uganda business attitudes to partnerships with INGOs to co-create community-based innovations
Research Conducted by Jodi Ashley Fleming, University of Copenhagen for the Response Innovation Lab
Collaborative private sector-INGO partnerships allow both organisations to combine their valuable expertise and create contextual innovative solutions for a humanitarian and community-based response; something more essential than ever as new types of crises emerge globally. This qualitative study investigated Ugandan private sector attitudes towards partnerships with INGOs to co-create community-based innovations.
“... this report finds that it is the already engaged private sector waiting for the humanitarian model to catch up. ”
Ten semi-structured interviews were completed with Uganda business leaders. As practical research took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, interview questions were expanded to encompass any related response activities and experiences. The interview findings were thematically analysed and synthesised with existing literature.
All business leaders interviewed believed business has an obligation to the community in which it operates, and to ultimately empower people. Responses to key concepts such as essential partnership dynamics, ideal lengths of collaboration, the importance of bottom-up innovation practices, and the benefits of private sector-INGO collaborations were consistent with existing literature. However, an underlying tension remains regarding the legacy of prolonged INGO assistance in Uganda and the perceived creation of a recipient mentality in local populations. Importantly, these findings showed that private sector-INGO partnerships are still experienced as two dichotomous models: the for-profit vs the not-for-profit, however, these functional borders are becoming increasingly porous with the recent INGO sector push towards sustainability, resulting in business concern of INGO market competition.
Positioned between the private sector and humanitarian agencies, locally-based connector services are ideally positioned to facilitate cross-sector interactions.
Recommendations are offered for the Response Innovation Lab, including:
Targeted interactions and organic partnerships aligned with key stages of business growth
Strategic engagement with businesses operating in the informal economy to assist them to enter Uganda’s formal economy, shepherding change at a substantive level
Supporting local business networks for information exchange, upskilling and x-sector synergies
Promotion of alternate capital funding vehicles for social enterprises and small businesses
Business leaders in Uganda already consider their businesses part of the communities in which they operate, and rather than being pressured by INGOs to take an interest in societal needs, this report finds that it is the already engaged private sector waiting for the humanitarian model to catch up.