Collaboration with other development actors, encompassing diverse forms and modalities of partnerships, has been an integral element of Oxfam’s history. In the Philippines, Oxfam has a longstanding tradition of collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society groups and corporate private sector entities. These collaborative initiatives and partnerships have contributed significantly to the achievement of Oxfam’s objectives of alleviating poverty and reducing inequality.

In 2017, Oxfam in the Philippines launched its Strategic Partnership Model, which codified their experiences in development partnerships. Oxfam has regularly assessed the model since then, recognising the evolving nature and continuing challenges inherent in partnerships and collaborative work.

In late 2022, Oxfam Pilipinas has decided to undertake a learning review of the partnership model to take stock of their experiences over the last five years and identify lessons and areas for improvement.

However, the experience in the last five years needed to be framed vis-a-vis the longer narrative of Oxfam’s history of partnerships in the Philippines, along with relevant changes in the broader development and humanitarian landscape as well as organizational transformations of Oxfam and individual partners.

The learning review took place against the backdrop of ongoing discussions and debates about partnerships around the world. These discussions highlighted key matters such as the importance of local leadership in humanitarian and development work, the need to shift power and resources to local actors, more accountability in development work, decolonization of aid, addressing racism in the development sector and reimagining the role of international NGOs. Many of the issues, lessons and insights discussed during the learning review were not new. However, these topics require revisiting, especially given that new individuals are now participating in these relationships. They will need to construct their own narratives of partnerships, explore innovative ways of working, and even re-evaluate and challenge existing assumptions about partnership policy and practice. There have been changes and variances in the participation, experience and level of engagement of both organizations and individuals in these partnerships as well as in the learning review process itself.

It is equally important to acknowledge the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the practice of partnerships during the period under review.

It is our aim to ensure that the valuable voices of the participants in the learning review process - staff of both Oxfam Pilipinas and partners - come through and are given justice in this report. Given the wide range of issues on partnerships, the learning review participants decided to focus on the specific topics they deemed were relevant, urgent and aligned with their current needs.

Oxfam Pilipinas and its partners consider their current partnership to be in a good place. However, they all feel that this learning review is not the end of conversations and learning that need to be had with regards to the issue of partnerships. Learning is ongoing; learning requires time.