Supporting networking
Networks are present everywhere. All we need is to be aware of them and understand them as a new organizational language.
“In this participatory universe, nothing lives alone. Everything takes shape through relationships. (…) We choose what we perceive, we relate to certain things and ignore others. Through these chosen relationships we co-create the world. If we are interested in change, it is crucial to remember that we are working within networks of relationships, not with machines.”
Margaret Wheatley, The New Science
For more than a decade, we have stood alongside change agents because the root causes of the diverse and complex social challenges they work on are intertwined. Furthermore, it represents an opportunity to pool efforts, technical, human, and financial capacities, whether projects or programs in networks, establishing alliances and developing common strategies, gaining legitimacy and institutional recognition as an actor and political subject, and increasing the capacity for advocacy, influence, and visibility of change agents.
However, and despite the exponential increase in initiatives and actors that are committed to networking, sometimes it is necessary to incorporate a more structural reflection, that is, in the strategic, organizational and then operational levels.
By providing a space (container) for learning, trust-building, (re)imagination and innovation, we guide through a collaborative process designed to change perspectives and positively influence realities. This allows organizations and their local, regional and international allies to collaborate from their differences, realities and worldviews to achieve systemic change. To do this, we use collaborative, creative and dynamic working approaches to face the challenges of the contexts in which they operate.
At UBORA, we incorporate a decolonial approach to networking, recognizing the historical and structural inequalities that affect equitable participation in these spaces. This approach allows us to accompany organizations in processes that reflect on imposed hierarchies and promote horizontal relationships between the actors involved. We believe in the need to build networks that value local knowledge, community experiences and diverse perspectives, processes that can guarantee the participation of voices that have historically been silenced in decision-making processes. By applying this perspective, we promote a logic of collaborative work that not only strengthens organizational capacities, but also fosters a transformative vision for more inclusive and sustainable networks
We accompany you in the different phases of collaboration
Starting a new collaboration
We support the process of creating alliances between organizations and in the development of common projects: strategy definition, partner identification and analysis of actors and risks.
Network collaboration occurs when different people or organizations want to achieve something together. It is necessary to start from an agreement on what is wanted to be achieved. It is possible that all the parties involved pursue the same objective or that what they want to achieve is complementary. Collaboration, of course, is carried out on consensus and the necessary creation of trust, although obviously this path is built on learning processes and recognition of the differences in opinion and vision of each of the organizations that make up the network:
- Define the strategy, develop theories of change, (systemic strategies) agreed on the purpose of networking.
- Identify partner organizations and analyze the actor map
- Carry out a mapping of the context, risks, interests, perspectives, challenges and opportunities associated in the complex and changing context in which networking processes operate (systems mapping).
- Identify and agree on routes for change and transformative scenarios.
- Build relationships and capacities oriented to collaborative work in a creative way.
We support from a systemic thinking, which considers collaboration as a premise to achieve change. By networking nationally or internationally, the different parties see why and how transformative changes are achieved, generating interest in their success and sustainability over time. Collaboration is often not the fastest way to get things done. But without the participation of the people and organizations that will sustain systemic changes in the long term, their lack of understanding of the system in which they operate, or even their distrust of it, can lead to resistance and failure of the joint work.
Strengthening an existing collaboration
At UBORA we support organizations in defining the objectives and scope or strategic results of network programs and projects that they want to develop, emphasizing the identification and analysis of factors in the external and institutional context, as well as the framework in which the different actors working in the network intervene.
This support in defining the networking strategy and identifying partners is carried out through the application of a methodology that UBORA adapts to the needs of different organizations. We facilitate from approaches that focus on identifying emerging processes, with awareness of existing strengths to generate opportunities, identifying strategies to contribute to transformative change. Likewise, we also use tools from project management models and complex programs in which we have the necessary training, accreditation and expertise
Our services will help you to:
- Define common objectives and the strategy to follow in multi-actor projects and programs, reinforcing the appropriation and understanding of common narratives.
- Develop the Theory of Change of the program or networking project, for its implementation, monitoring, and internal and continuous evaluation, as well as inform and account for the use of the OutNav program .
- Facilitate multi-actor processes, aimed at strengthening the capacity to work together, identify and agree on routes for change, as well as transformative scenarios.
- Build relationships and capacities for collaborative work in a creative way.
- Improve systemic collaboration capacities, incorporating a decolonial and anti-racist perspective in collaborative strategies and practices.
- Identify and analyze the map of actors and associated risks in the complex context of a project or networking.
Putting networking into practice
The dynamics of networking generate new forms of organization and new structures. The most common thing when we start a project is that the needs inherent to the nature of networking are not made explicit, so that the monitoring, evaluation and learning processes are sometimes carried out following the internal logic of each organization. Therefore, and from this premise, new challenges and needs are generated that are either not visualized, or do not allow other possible options for organizational processes to be made explicit, which on the other hand arise naturally as a result of interaction.
At UBORA we advise on how to incorporate monitoring, evaluation and learning systems for networked projects with a multiplicity of actors, and at the same time we focus on the fact that projects are executed by organizations, and these need to have the necessary capacity to carry them out. From this approach, we have developed our own methodology that has been successful on multiple occasions to evaluate organizational capacity, especially of second-degree networks, or networks of networks worldwide formed by civil society organizations (OCA, Organisational capacity assessment).
Our services will help you to:
- Develop adapted and contextualized M&E instruments to monitor networking.
- Act together in an innovative way to create impact.
- Transform the lessons learned about what works and what does not work, monitoring and evaluating with the support of a program: Outnav.
- Improve the capacities to develop new patterns of interaction, relationships and resources that incorporate an anti-racist and decolonial perspective.
- Assess the organizational capacities of networks of Civil Society Organizations to achieve the change they propose. (OCA: Organizational Capacity Assessment)
- Generate new scenarios and collaborative processes with the implementation of innovative practices (prototypes, pilot tests or social laboratories).
Evaluating networking
Networks that work for social change are non-linear and dynamic forms of organization that operate in complex and changing systems. In addition, the changes that a network seeks to generate depend on the actions and decisions of multiple actors and, when these occur, the networks contribute to them indirectly.
At UBORA, we support the networks themselves in finding out what is working and what is not in their work process, as well as evaluating in the long term what changes have been achieved, in order to obtain valid information that allows decisions to be made on future strategies, as well as accountability. Conventional evaluation systems are based on input-output models and measure success in relation to the achievement of predefined and measurable results that are difficult to adapt to the nature of networking. In any case, if they are used, they limit their capacity for innovation, adaptation and flexibility. Therefore, to evaluate the work of a network, we apply new approaches that can reflect the dynamic and complex reality that this process implies, as well as the changes that they contribute to generating, promoting the participation and learning of the actors and actors involved in it.
Our services will help you to:
- Evaluate long-term networking processes (action frameworks of 5 or more years).
- Systematize the networking carried out through the application of participatory methodologies (for example, stories of the most significant change) that allow the collection of learnings on the experiences developed and generate materials to be shared with other social movements, civil society organizations, as well as with other actors in general.
- Review the functioning of a partnership, network or alliance and determine whether all the necessary elements (governance and technical structure, processes, coordination and collaboration for strategic and operational decision-making) are properly implemented, while ensuring their continuous review and adaptation.
- Disseminate the work produced through audiovisual tools (participatory video, exhibitions, publications, visual thinking, etc.).
Nuestro enfoque
We believe it is possible to do things differently and choose how you want to do them. Networking and the recognition of diversity ultimately influence the organization’s own culture.
We move from theory to practice, incorporating a decolonial and anti-racist perspective to help generate transformative outcomes for both organizations and communities. We work to ensure that organizations integrate these perspectives into their strategies and actions, fostering changes that are not only inclusive but also oriented toward social justice.
We identify and apply social innovation tools, introducing new ways of addressing stuck or complex issues through practice. We do so with a systemic perspective that supports unblocking polarized situations.
We provide training and support capacity development through innovation and creativity to respond to complex challenges.
We design models and systems to monitor, evaluate, and learn from the outcomes of network-based work, placing meaningful change and impact at the center. This ensures that both strategy and operations are aligned and connected to what truly matters: organizational learning.
