
22 September 2022
This webinar was intended to become a forum for sharing experiences and inspiration about partnership practices in the context of Indonesia, as well as finding ways to strengthen them. Yanti Triwadiantini as the founder and CEO of Partnership-ID, in her introductory remarks, stated there have been significant progress in the implementation of partnerships in Indonesia. As an Accredited Partnership Broker of the Partnership Brokers Association (PBA), she acknowledged the contribution of PBA in enriching insights and understanding about partnerships, while the presence of a number of PBA alumni in this event raised her confident in strengthening partnership network both locally and globally.
Joanna Pyres from PBA then explained the roles and functions of PBA in the last 20 years, and now it is timely for PBA to serve the world needs on finding solutions for various development issues (economy, environment, food, etc.) through partnership. A dynamic and competent platform is needed, and she believes input from partnership actors in Indonesia will provide a clear picture, related to increasing the impact of PBA globally and locally.

Erna Witoelar, the co-founder of Partnership-ID, reiterated that partnership among various parties has become a necessity so that the impact is bigger and reaches larger beneficiaries. Building trust is the key, due to many reasons for partnering and the wider scope of development. The most important thing in partnership is the passion and desire of the partners to walk together.
The next speaker was Ratna Krestiana, currently works for an AusAid funded project, who explained her experience as an alumni of PBA. As a development worker, she admits that PBA has provided her with enlightenment, broad insights and a useful partner. Collaboration becomes wider, and the methodology and knowledge gained help practitioners to create meaningful participation of the partner organizations. Finally, Ratna concluded, differences can increase values and resources to strengthen the collaboration.
Helen Sidjabat, Philantrophy VP of Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) became the third speaker, and started the conversation by introducing WVI, a national non-profit organization that is part of World Vision International, focusing on children’s issues. Naturally WVI is involved in various aspects of partnerships in its wide range of activities.

Lesson learned from Helen’s presentation is, when partnering, be the preferred partner, things that the leaders of WVI are committed to using partnership as the DNA of the organization. In many trainings, changes are made, including in the system. As a result, WVI has succeeded in making partnership projects better and more effective.
During the question/answer session, there were discussion about:
- Challenge and innovation in partnership. Helen shared WVI tips: 1) Readiness to partner, including program, system, people and also network; 2) Topic of choice, such as SDG’s; 3) Innovation just the understanding of technology and talk to your partner, said Helen.
- How to overcome dispute in the journey. Erna Witoelar suggest to just face the reality and deal with it.
- How to deal with conflict of interest when connecting with trusted partners. Helen shared that WVI does regular partner evaluation. For that WVI invites the partners and talks openly in front of them. At some points, when their partner is unable to carry on the partnership, or our organization have to leave, let it go.
What PBA reveals from the discussion? There is great appetite, strong senses to share each other and there is interest in networking. Later on, there is some sense of strategic intervention, in two forms. One is about how Indonesian network, and also the global network could do peer learning, and strategic intervention. Second is what Indonesia’s special needs are, that’s what we need to think about together.
As a result of the meeting between small groups, it was agreed that Indonesia still face variety of challenges due to the diversity of locations, regions, cultures and so on. It is a pity that there are very few PBA alumni or those who understand partnership issues in Indonesia. For this reason, it was agreed that this kind of forum would be held again by the PBA to be able to find solutions that are unique to Indonesia. (YT/TIP).