Collaboration and Dialogue
Overview
The challenges of our time — from climate change to inequality — cannot be solved by any single actor. Achieving lasting impact depends on our ability to collaborate across sectors, institutions, and disciplines. Yet collaboration is rarely easy: it requires trust, alignment, and shared purpose among diverse partners with different incentives and perspectives.
Successful collaborations are built on shared goals, inclusive processes, sound governance, and the capacity to learn, adapt, and innovate together. They create the conditions for innovation, shared ownership and investments, and collective results.
I support organizations and alliances to design, launch, and strengthen collaborative initiatives — from multi-stakeholder platforms and coalitions to funder collaboratives and cross-sector partnerships. My services include facilitation, governance and process design, partnership strategy, and coordination support. I help partners find common ground, maintain momentum, and translate shared ambition into effective joint action.
Challenge
Addressing the complex, interconnected challenges of climate, nature, and sustainable development requires collaboration on an unprecedented scale. Yet while the need for partnership is widely recognized, effective collaboration remains difficult to achieve and sustain.
Many alliances struggle with fragmented governance, unclear roles, competing priorities, and limited resources for coordination and facilitation. Meanwhile, power imbalances, differing institutional cultures, and the pressures of donor accountability can make genuine collaboration elusive.
At the same time, new collaborative models and digital tools are transforming how actors connect, share information, and co-create solutions. Funders and stakeholders increasingly expect initiatives to be inclusive, agile, and impact-oriented, demanding new forms of facilitation, trust-building, and shared learning.
The challenge is to create partnerships that are both visionary and operational — built on trust, clarity, and shared ownership — and to enable the collective leadership needed to drive systems-level change.
Expertise & Services
Effective collaboration doesn’t just happen — it must be designed, facilitated, and sustained. I help organizations and alliances develop the structures, processes, and relationships needed to translate collective ambition into coordinated action and measurable impact.
I support collaborative initiatives with:
Collaborative Design and Partnership Architecture. Advising on the design and governance of alliances, platforms, and partnerships — defining shared goals, roles, and mechanisms for decision-making and coordination.
Facilitation of Multi-Stakeholder Processes. Designing and facilitating dialogues, workshops, and convenings that bring diverse actors together to build trust, align priorities, and co-develop joint initiatives.
Operational Support and Coordination. Providing interim coordination or advisory support to strengthen collaboration management, internal communication, and partner engagement processes.
Learning and Adaptive Collaboration. Supporting ongoing reflection, learning, and review processes that allow partnerships to adapt to new contexts, manage challenges, and sustain momentum over time.
Across these engagements, I help organizations and networks build the trust, structure, and shared purpose required for effective and enduring collaboration.
Sample Engagements
Below are examples of engagements that I structure with clients. Duration, level of effort, and cost are indicative. Actual projects are custom-designed based on specific client and project support needs. I am also available on an ad-hoc expertise basis for targeted advisory services, review of project documents, meeting facilitation, and more, scoped and priced on an hourly or project basis. For these and other projects, budgets will depend on scope, scale, level of effort, and other project-specific criteria
Advisory Services — Partnership or Alliance Design Review. Strategic advice on the design, governance, and positioning of a collaborative initiative or platform.
Indicative duration: 2–4 weeks | Indicative level of effort: 2–8 days | Indicative cost: USD 3,000-10,000
Consulting Assignment — Multi-Stakeholder Platform Design. Support in developing the structure, governance, and operational model for multi-stakeholder partnership or coalition.
Indicative duration: 1-3 months | Level of effort: 10–20 days | Indicative cost: USD 12,000–25,000
Facilitation Process — Partnership Building Workshop or Convening. Design and facilitation of a partnership dialogue, strategy session, or learning event to strengthen alignment and trust.
Typical duration: 3–4 weeks including preparation | Level of effort: 4–8 days | Indicative cost: USD 6,000–12,000
Implementation Support — Collaboration Coordination and Facilitation. Ongoing accompaniment to coordinate joint initiatives, facilitate working groups, and manage shared learning processes.
Indicative duration: 6–12 months | Indicative level of effort: 2-4 days/month | Indicative cost: USD 3,000-5,000 retainer.
Working together.
True collaboration has the power to multiply impact — but it requires trust, structure, and shared purpose. When well-designed and facilitated, partnerships can break silos, inspire innovation, and mobilize collective action for change. I work with organizations and alliances to create the conditions that make collaboration productive and lasting. If you’re building or revitalizing a partnership or platform, I’d welcome the opportunity to help you align actors, focus priorities, and accelerate results.
