The Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA) is equipping business and trade associations from Africa and Asia in training on social partnership skills aimed at strengthening their partnership with other business actors. The training which was under the theme: "Social partnership for business development" was facilitated by the DANIDA Fellowship Centre (DFC) in collaboration with the Aarhus Tech, treated topics such as partnership at the workplace, the multi-functional platform programme in social partnership, the concept of Public Private Partnership and the success of Danish partnership model. The three week training programme, which was held at the Danish second largest city in Aarhus exposed participants to the success of the Danish partnership model which is expected to be replicated in the participants' home organisation. Course Director Poul Jeppesen said the training programme was structured to expose participants, who were from developing countries to the different aspects of partnership models using the success of the Danish concept as a case study. "We are certainly pleased by the expression of interests in our programmes by applicants from the developing world". "Social partnership is one of the specialities that Denmark can offer", adding that "Partnership and stakeholder cooperation is a long tradition in DenmarK, which has been one of the most important motors for development in many areas, not least, in business development", he said. Mr Jeppesen said business sector member organisations had often lacked the ability to record the views of their members, translate them into realistic objectives and comprehend complex business issues. "With the introduction of social partnership in a number of policy areas, the capacity of an interest in organization to participate in, understand and influence governed processes becomes increasingly relevant" he said. An integral part of the course and learning approach in the preparation of an Individual Action Plan (IAP) by the participants, which offers them an opportunity to focus on a single well defined subject of relevance to their home organisations and an action plan for implementation. He said Denmark was pleased to share its experiences with others especially developing countries on ways of achieving speedy growth and development. The training advisor at the DANIDA Fellowship Centre (DFC) Ms Helle Jorgensen said the course was organized to bridge the gap in stakeholder consultations with business partners. "This course is even more relevant to strengthen the corporation between business partners and trade associations, which in most times has been very frosty due to lack of trust and confidence". "This is why the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is supporting the private sector and civil Society Organisation with capacity building to enhance participants’ business partnership skills". According to her, the course, Social Partnership for Business Development was expected to be replicated by the course participants in the business and trade organisations when they went back home after the course. "Capacity development is the greatest need in development, poverty reduction, governance, employment and economic development", she said. There is mounting evidence from many partnership initiatives under development in different parts of the world that such cross-sector colaboration can be highly effective and sustainable when it is designed, developed and managed in a systematic way. Organisers of the training programme believe that by working separately, different sectors of trade associations have developed activities in isolation - sometimes competing with each other and or duplicating effort and wasting valuable resources. "Working separately has all too often led to the development of a blame culture In which chaos or neglect is always regarded as someone else's fault" Ms Jorgensen said. Partnership, she said, provides a "new Opportunity for doing development better, by recognising the qualities and competencies of each sector and finding new ways of harnessing these for the common good". The Ghanaian participants, who were mostly from the private sector, came from organisations such as the Ghana Employers Association, Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organisation (SMIDO), Journalists for Business Advocacy (JBA), Road Contractors Association and the Agricultural sector. All over the world, at both strategic and operational levels, key players from the public sector, business and civil society are working out how to work together as partners to find long term solutions to the most intractable problems facing many countries, especially the developing ones. As part of the overall strategy for Africa, the Danish Government believes that partnership is required to take Africa out of its one-sided role as recipients of development assistance and more onto the international stage as actors on equal terms. The Danish Government's Africa Strategy is expected be the foundation of Denmark's efforts in Africa in the coming years. Preparations have been made for strengthening the already substantial Danish input, but at the same time for broadening cooperation too. In drawing up its Africa Strategy, the government has attached importance to an open dialogue with Danish and international stakeholders, partly to ensure the best possible product and to anchor Danish priorities more broadly. Source: Graphic Business