Guidance for Civil Society Organizations on Partnership with UNICEF
Overview:
Every year, UNICEF partners with nearly 4,000 civil society organizations (CSOs) in countries all around the world to implement programmes and deliver results for children, women and communities. This publication, Guidance for Civil Society Organizations on Partnership with UNICEF, has been developed to promote understanding of UNICEF’s partnership principles, processes and practices among both current and prospective civil society partners. This publication is aligned with UNICEF’s Procedure for Country and Regional Office CSO Implementing Partnerships, an internal UNICEF document issued in February 2019 that applies to all UNICEF offices when partnering with and transferring resources to CSOs. In the event of any unintentional misalignment between the guidance in this publication and the legal partnership agreement signed between UNICEF and a CSO partner, the latter prevails.
Purpose and intended users:
The purpose of this publication is to promote common understanding of UNICEF’s civil society partnership requirements. It is hoped that by reducing the information asymmetry between UNICEF offices and CSOs, the publication will support the timely establishment of high-quality, results-focused partnerships that in turn deliver high-quality, results-focused development and humanitarian programmes. The primary audience of this publication is both current and prospective civil society partners. The content of the publication may be especially relevant to those CSO personnel who are focal points for developing or managing partnerships with UNICEF. This publication, which focuses on the general operationalization of civil society partnerships with UNICEF, is to be read in conjunction with other publications that provide technical guidance on collaboration in specific programme sectors.
Feedback and suggestions:
The content of this publication is aligned to the requirements of UNICEF’s 2019 CSO Procedure. As and when UNICEF’s internal procedure is revised, this publication will be revised accordingly. The publication may also be periodically revised to reflect user feedback and provide greater clarification. Please send feedback, suggestions or queries on the content of this publication to csopartnership@unicef.org. For all other partnership-related inquiries, the UNICEF field office should serve as the first and primary point of contact.
