Our Approach

Local ownership

 

We engage local people and empower and enable them to design and manage their projects, to influence, and improve their and their communities’ prosperity. By working alongside others, we give them skills, resources and encouragement to overcome the barriers they will face in their projects, rather than being disheartened or giving up.

​

Our in-country team members often take on substantial roles, as they know best what local people want, what will work in the environment, who they need to work with and influence, and where to get resources from. They also understand how climate change, gender inequality and social exclusion affect development in their country. They offer practical ways to overcome barriers to sustainable development that suit the local environment and will do no harm.

​

Local relevance

​

Our services include analysing the project environment to understand the local laws and regulations, policies, governance structures, politics, economics, culture and traditions, and human and financial capacity and resources. We are committed to designing projects that suit the local environment, so they are more likely to have ‘buy in’ from important stakeholders, succeed and have long-lasting benefits.

​

Local skills and knowledge

​

Into each assignment, we incorporate methods to develop local skills and knowledge. Through mentoring, training, coaching, and shadowing, we help our clients improve their project design and management skills, to continue improving their projects and sustain the results.

​

Long-term relationships

​

Future Partners has long-term relationships with individuals, communities and organisations. Even when our assignments have ended, we stay engaged with our client’s projects and are ready to step back in when they need help.

​

During their assignments, our team often make pro-bono contributions, such as giving advice or training, participating in local events, strengthening local organisations, and helping people develop skills in English, other languages or IT.

​

Honesty

​

We communicate honestly and openly with our clients and team members, to establish relationships built on trust and integrity and ensure there are ‘no surprises’. We welcome feedback from everyone we work with, so we can continually improve our services and make a more significant difference in people’s lives.

​

Simplicity

​

When we design projects, we focus on practical solutions to development problems, which local people own and everyone will benefit from. 

​

Low-tech solutions are often more likely to be successfully implemented and maintained than more complex, hi-tech ones. We work with our clients to find the underlying cause of problems, rather than react to the more visible symptoms of those problems.

​

Our methods are rigorous but not overly prescriptive and structured. We use different approaches depending on the type and size of the assignment, so that our work is practical, useful and suits the context and our client.

Benefits for all

​

We take account of the perspectives of women, children and youth, older people, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups; local context and emerging issues; and the impact of climate change, natural disasters, pandemics and the like.

​

Doing what’s right

​

At Future Partners we never cut corners and are always ready to ‘go the extra mile’. We don’t rely only on desk-based research or second-hand knowledge; we find out for ourselves, using our local network. If our interviews or analysis doesn’t give us the information we need, we find other ways. We don’t stop until we get it right.

​

Resilience

​

People and organisations invest their money, time and hope into projects. Future Partners is committed to ensuring that the changes that result from projects are resilient to setbacks and will be long lasting, so local people continue to benefit from them for years to come.

​

Value for money

​

At Future Partners, we know that organisations have limited budgets, and resources are stretched to cover many priorities. We help our clients keep their costs down by providing services that offer good value for money. We do this by consistently providing the team members agreed in our contract at competitive rates; using teams with local consultants; keeping team sizes manageable by using individuals who have multi-disciplinary skills; keeping our overheads to a minimum; and having one point of contact which reduces the ‘transaction’ effort for our client.

We provide a contract completion report that includes an acquittal against the contract budget and sets out any additional information or commentary that might not be within the scope or be suited to a report or product in the public domain.