Partnerships are at the center of effective humanitarian work. Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are collaborative agreements between State-run or public entities, corporate sector and civil society organizations. By working with private entities, the humanitarian community can benefit in many ways, such as making better use of technological innovation and expertise.
During a humanitarian response, PPPs contribute funds, in-kind donations, employee mobilization, cause-related marketing or expert services. Private sector donors are strongly encouraged to give cash rather than in-kind donations, since cash donations allow humanitarian actors to determine where and how to best allocate resources based on the most pressing needs. In-kind donations can also be beneficial, but must be well matched to a specific need and implementing partner. To understand the effects of these partnerships, it is useful to begin with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s 2009 Integrated Planning Strategy (IPS), which divides organizational planning into three distinct, though inter related tiers. The first tier, strategic planning, involves decision-makers providing “overall high-level guidance for planners. The second tier, operational planning, translates strategic plans into concrete actions and sequences of events. The third tier, tactical planning, concerns the coordination of resources in relation to one another and in relation to natural or man-made hazards. Using these tiers as a framework of analysis, we can see that public-private partnerships can have a substantial effect on these three organizational levels – strategic, operational, and tactical – and thus have a substantial impact on disaster management as a whole.
Public-private partnership model is the best one that uplifted humanitarian response in floods of 2010 in Pakistan. It’s very successful and spreading day by day for greater good. It is imperative to mention that ‘public-private model’ opens the door for new opportunities and collaborations to respond and manage disasters and emergencies in timely manners.
If tracking total private voluntary contributions for humanitarian aid is a challenging task, gauging where this private money goes is an even more difficult undertaking. Very few departments and organizations in Pakistan report their private or sector specific expenditure for humanitarian response separately from their overall funding allocations or budgets. In 2010 floods of Pakistan financial support from individuals, corporations, and private trusts and foundations mobilized by government and civil society organizations which was the tremendous year in the history of Pakistan.
To deliver coherent and timely humanitarian response, the need is to connect public and private sector bodies, departments, organizations and corporations to build coordination and inter-operability, to help construct an understanding of humanitarian principles and international standards, norms and mechanisms for more effective outcomes. It is the time to reach out to find and replicate best practice, identify promising innovations for the future, while strengthening the best aspects of the response systems that exist today and ensuring that these are inter-operable. No one organization can do this alone, which is why need to build alliances and networks of the government, non-government, corporate and private sector organizations in Pakistan.
In order for public private partnerships to succeed, each partner should focus on their core competency and give what they do best, in exchange for some benefit of greater value. We should seek to create a sustainable trust network with common objectives to drive efficiency and efficacy in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Sustainable public private alliances and networks empower beneficiaries with skills and communities with capabilities that allow them to continue to grow and progress beyond the programs and activities end date. As a unified community serving those most in need, we must own what we do. By acknowledging our failures and subsequently learnings from it, we guard against criticisms and we position ourselves to succeed in the future. The tested model for enabling resiliency is private & public sector partnership and cooperation. It is a model that can and must be expanded for both emergency and non-emergency contexts.