Landscape Partnership

Landscape Partnerships (LPs, also known as multi-stakeholder partnerships or MSPs) bring different stakeholders together to agree on and pursue a common strategy to achieve resilient and sustainable landscapes. LPs create a safe space for stakeholders to share information, develop a common understanding of problems and opportunities, negotiate outcomes, create a shared vision for the landscape, and collaboratively decide and implement action plans to sustainably manage the resources in a landscape. LPs can help build trust between different stakeholders. They provide a space to address conflicts over access to resources, democratize development by giving stronger voice to minority groups, and facilitate collective learning. Moving towards more resilient landscapes requires cycles of negotiation, and opportunities for landscape actors to communicate effectively. This is a co-creation process: strong facilitation can help actors focus on negotiating their core interests, rather than defending specific solutions, and on finding ways to enhance synergies and reduce tradeoffs among resource users and uses. Co-creation and facilitation needs to be ensured for many years to make sure the system change will be successfully embedded within a landscape. The development costs to guarantee this process should be part of any budget design.

LPs bring different stakeholders together to agree on and pursue a common strategy to achieve resilient and sustainable landscapes.

Landscape Partnership Outputs

Stakeholder identification and engagement strategy

Most LPs arise through the leadership of a few ‘champions’ of landscape stewardship from different sectors. LPs develop over time to recruit other champions and build a network and ‘shared leadership’ that involves allies from multiple sectors and organizations whose inputs are needed to sustainably manage the landscape. LPs can include local stakeholders as well as stakeholders who are physically distant but have legitimate interests in the landscape (e.g. investors, or multinational companies that source from the landscape). The roles of the different stakeholders will depend on the activities of the LP and the assets, capacities and motivations of its members. Read More

Suggested tools that can help achieve this output
  1. IIED Stakeholder Influence Mapping
  2. ​​Mapping Social Landscapes: A Guide to Identifying the Networks, Priorities, and Values of Restoration Actors
  3. Partner Assessment Form
  4. Stakeholder Characteristics and Roles Matrix
  5. The Partnering Toolbook Stakeholder Mapping Tool
  6. The SDG Partnership Guidebook Stakeholder Mapping Tool

Landscape Partnership Agreement

The LP, whether a formal or informal grouping of partners, will come together around a common landscape vision. This provides direction to the LP and a foundation for collaborative action. To work effectively together, it is valuable for the group to have a clear agreement about its purpose and the ways in which it will operate. Read More

Suggested tools that can help achieve this output
  1. Designing Comprehensive Partnering Agreements
  2. Ground Rules
  3. Partnering Agreement Template
  4. The Wayfinder Guide Card 2: Agreeing on Principles for Good Practice

Landscape Partnership capacity and performance assessment

As LPs develop, it can be useful to assess the individual and collective competencies (values, knowledge, and skills) held by LP stakeholders for conducting ILM. Commonly useful competencies include facilitation, conflict resolution, business development, knowledge of specific ILM tools, effective training methods, financial literacy, resource mobilization, partnership development, and facility with information technology. Capacity analysis can identify gaps that might require either training (of individuals or the group) or reaching out to recruit additional partners with those competencies. LPs may also want to periodically assess their own performance. This would consider both the processes used by the partnership and progress in advancing collaborative action, and identify priorities for partnership strengthening (1.4). Read More

Suggested tools that can help achieve this output
  1. Conditions for Success (C4S) Tool
  2. How are we doing? A tool to reflect on the process, progress and priorities of your multi-stakeholder forum
  3. Managing Power Imbalances
  4. Partnership Review Template
  5. Partnering Roles and Skills Questionnaire
  6. Partnership Health Check

Partnership-strengthening strategy

Voluntary collaborative action requires continuous effort to sustain and strengthen the LP itself. Just as important as planning the technical aspects of ILM is a partnership strengthening strategy. This may build on findings from a capacity or performance assessment. Partnership and leadership strengthening may include actions such as enhancing collaboration, restructuring organizations, engaging new partners, building trust, enhancing negotiation and other skills, improving communications, increasing transparency, sharing leadership roles, building multi-generational leadership or mobilizing financial support. The leadership team or LP membership as a whole can periodically assess progress in partnership strengthening. Read More

Suggested tools that can help achieve this output
  1. Gender Inclusivity Buckets Book
  2. Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration for Systemic Change: A New Approach to Strengthening Farmer Support Systems
  3. Participatory Gender Training for Community Groups
  4. Toward Viable Landscape Governance Systems