Choose a community or let it choose you?

One of the greatest challenges of partnering with organizations working in Malawi is finding the right partners. Some organizations come to Malawi to rollout programs designed in their offices in the US or the UK with little or no input from the people and organizations on the ground. These groups aren’t really looking for partners; they’re looking for recipients. Other organizations, such as Goods for Good, are trying to find people and organizations in Malawi with whom to partner. Goods for Good is actively looking for partner communities that are providing sustainable care to orphans and vulnerable children, where we can provide goods and training to improve care. The problem with this model is finding the right partners when you are an outsider. Many people here have been schooled on the right things to say to visiting organizations but before any partnership can be formed one needs to dig much deeper.


We’ve been fortunate to have a wonderful Malawian liaison for Tiyambe Nawo who has facilitated many meetings with the community leaders and visits to their programs. But how would we have been able to match up with Tiyambe Nawo if it wasn’t for our liaison? How could we know that this organization was actually as good as advertised?

The answer we’ve settled on is twofold. First, organizations must utilize Malawians to work here effectively. Any organization that thinks it can stroll into the country and order people around is in for a rude awakening.
If you want to work here you have to work with the people. That is why we plan on hiring an experienced Malawian program officer, someone who not only knows our model but knows the culture and local language. Second, is something those in the business world know well – a simple, but all important process known as ‘doing your homework’. We recently discovered through a series of meetings with other western organizations that none of them had done a reasonable amount of diligence on their partners. It doesn’t matter if it you’re working with community organizations in Malawi or Investment Banks in New York, when it comes time to make organizational decisions you have to do your homework.

Choosing partners is not a perfect science but working with the locals and spending time in the field is an important step to implementing meaningful and lasting programs.